Fly for Me
by whimsicalletters
Summary: Okada Megumi is a second year at Rikkai Dai, and is invisible to everyone. When found on the roof, ready to jump, Niou interrupts her, wanting to know more about her. With pranks and adventures, Megumi learns about the simplicity of friendship, and about the importance of life. K for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Before you read, I am going to promise you, this story is not all about the OC feeling sad about herself and constantly talking about death. Even so, if you do not like suicidal plots, this is not the story for you. I would love for you to read it, but this is a fair warning that it is a topic will come around many times. Other than that, I hope everyone enjoys.**

 ***No, I do not own Prince of Tennis**

* * *

Dying isn't easy for anyone. It always happens when you least expect it, and the reasons are difficult to comprehend. It's often more painful for the people, not the ones who are gone. It's a scary concept, though. You're alive, and you see so much around you, and suddenly, it's gone. You disappear, not knowing where you'll end up, if anywhere at all. Death is scary, no matter who you are. But no matter how scary, there are people who are willing to face it. Okada Megumi is one of them. She looked at the ground, so far from her, but her shoulders were relaxed. She gripped the hem of her skirt, and drew a breath.

' _This is it.'_ She thought, and felt her nerves travel to her legs.

"Are you going to jump?" she heard behind her. Her body froze, stopping her before she aimed for the ground.

"Sorry, did I interrupt something?" the same voice said. She slowly turned her head and saw a boy lying on the floor, looking at her upside-down.

"I'm sorry?" she said, confused about him. She was still standing on the edge, ready to fall at any moment.

"What are you doing?" he asked, not bothering to get up. Megumi was confused about this guy. What did he want? Wasn't it obvious what her intentions were?

"Why does it matter?" she asked, slowly moving toward him.

"Because if you jump, I'd have to reveal my secret to the whole world. That's not okay." He sat up and faced her.

"What secret?"

"If I tell you, it's not a secret anymore. So I can't tell you" he smirked.

"The fuck…" she mumbled to herself.

"So, who are you? I've never seen you before. Are you new?" he asked. Megumi let out a heavy breath.

"No, I'm a second year here. I've been here since middle school."

"Oh, good, you can actually talk with complete sentences. What's your name?"

"What's yours?" she retaliated, not wanting to seem weak.

"Oh, snappy too." He raised his eyebrows and gave another smirk.

"I'm Masa." He played with his small ponytail.

"Are you sure about giving your given name to a complete stranger?"

"It's not a secret so I don't care. What's your name?" Megumi stood in thought for a while. Should she give a fake name? For all she knew, he could be a stalker with plans to kill her.

"I'm…" she looked away from him, "I'm Megu."

He leaned back, not taking his eyes off of her. A wind passed; one strong enough to have pushed Megumi over the building. She curled her hands to fists, frustrated that she had failed again.

"Goddamnit." She bit her lip and looked at where she was standing previously.

"What? Are you mad that you couldn't die today?" she turned around and he was right there. His body only inches from hers. She looked up at his eyes for the first time, and looked at the floor immediately. But his piercing blue eyes lingered in her mind while she was trying to find a way to respond.

' _Who the hell is this guy? All of these questions as if we're good friends or something. I should be on the ground by now. No, I shouldn't even be breathing. I'm supposed to-'_

"Be dead?" he said. She shot her head up, shocked he could read her mind.

"You know you were saying all of that out loud?" he said to her.

"Oh." She said, getting even angrier at herself.

"Well, yeah. I wanted to die today." She blurted, brushing past him, heading for the door back in to the building. He walked in front of her, blocking her way.

"Why?" he continued to ask her.

"Why does it matter to you? We just met!" she yelled at him. He took a step back.

"Clearly, I was going to take that huge jump today and die. You know that. I wasn't just standing on the ledge for fun. Don't ask me questions about why I want to kill myself or why I don't have any friends, or about any mental or physical scars. Don't try to get to know me. And don't you fucking dare think that you were some guardian angel that saved my life or something. I'm going to die soon, one way or another, so don't try to stop me again." She heaved a breath. He was surprised that she said so much. He took one step toward her.

"First, I never asked about any scars you have, so that'll be a topic that I'll bring up if I see you again." She took a step back as he continued to walk.

"Second, don't think that I was trying to save you either. I'm just fucking bored, and you happened to be there." He stopped.

"And third, you wanna die? Turn around. Jump." He said, nodding his head to the ground. Megumi turned her upper body to see that she was on the edge. She took a deep breath, and moved her foot. A strong wind passed by again, and without thought, she leaned toward him, grabbing his shirt with her hands.

"Glad to meet you too, Megu." He wrapped his arm around her and walked back with her still holding on to him. She let go and stood still. She couldn't figure out what was happening. She lost her chance again. Masa slowly moved his arm off of her, and watched her stand in confusion.

"Hey, I hope you know that I didn't do anything. It was more like I dared you to jump." He laughed. She crouched down, holding her head. She wanted to scream. It was supposed to be easier than this.

"Hey, hey, why are you crying?" he asked, sitting in front of her.

' _I'm crying?'_ she thought.

"You're okay." He smiled to her.

"Why are you even here?" she asked, angry that she lost her chance again. She stood up and pushed him away.

"Hey, I don't think it's smart for you to head out right now. The bell just rang and you'll get attention from teachers asking where you were." He yelled out to her. She stopped in front of the door. She gave a sarcastic laugh.

"You really don't know me, do you?" she asked. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, and shook his head.

"Nope. All I know is that your name is probably Megumi, and that you were planning to die today." He shrugged. She opened the door, and took one last look at him before leaving.

"You're right about both. One more thing about me," she looked at the swarm of people in front of her, "I don't exist to anyone here." She said and disappeared completely in the crowd. He stood in place, keeping his eye on her until he lost her. The wind passed, and so did a recap of the things that just happened.

' _Alright. I guess you won't be bored anymore, Masaharu.'_ He smirked to himself and left the roof.

Megumi looked at her phone to see if there were any messages from her brothers. With no notifications, she looked for a good song to listen to, and avoided going home. She was not in the mood to talk to anyone, especially her family since they always had a way of pulling the whole truth out of her. Wondering what she could do, she looked in her bag and looked for any left over money. She found about three-hundred yen, which could maybe buy her one plain flavored rice ball.

"This day is just not going for me." She mumbled and looked behind her to the roof she was on just a few minutes ago. She shook her head and walked ahead, not wanting to think about what happened, or the guy that was there. Masa, or something. She sat at a bench at a nearby park and thought she was stupid for mentioning her scars. She lied down, resting her head on her bag, and browsed her phone. Her home screen was her four brothers, all trying to do something flexible with their body, but completely failing their attempts. She couldn't help but give a small laugh every time she looked at it. Having only one small blog app for social media, she looked through her photos which only consisted of her brothers, or views from the roof of her home. She opened her blog to see if there was anything new, and noticed that she gained seven new followers. She found it funny how online, so many people from school knew her, but since she uses an alias, no one knows her. The blog wasn't anything special. All she did was talk about the mysteries of death and why so many people feared it. She could be responsible for making stressed teenagers over-think their life by questioning everyone's existence. Suddenly, Masa's face appeared in her mind.

First off, why the hell is his hair white? He's in high school, he's supposed to have his natural black hair, or maybe that orange-ish color that's in fashion right now. She knew that he wasn't in the same grade as her though, she didn't recognize him. But he had to be a third year, since he looked much older than a high schooler altogether. She felt her face blush, just thinking about him.

"Megumi, chill out. No. You're not attracted to him. No, no, no, no." she said out loud. She laughed at how stupid she was. She had just met him, moments from her death, and probably had a lot of different hormones going through her body, causing this allure. And that smirk he had made her mind go insane. She hated it already, when she barely knew him. It was all his fault. If he had not been there, everything would've gone according to plan.

Then she remembered how she hesitated completely when he was right in front of her. She put her hand to her head, frustrated at how scared she got. She always failed when it came to jumping or anything that had to do with heights. Her sleeve fell, exposing some scratches on her wrist. She stared at them. She could barely feel any pain when creating them anymore. She ran that hand through her hair and let it fall by her side.

' _Why is death so difficult for me? It must be a curse or something.'_ She thought, and realized how spoiled she sounded. She knows that there are people out there who would give anything to have the "luckiness" of not dying, no matter how many times she's tried. She looked at the time and was shocked to see that she had spent two hours sitting there and being upset. She told herself how pathetic she was and got to her feet. She was about to head home when she saw a small group of girls with bags that read "Rikkai Dai Dance Team". She felt her heart race and her nerves got the best of her. Quickly, she turned to walk another direction. Keeping her eyes on the ground, she walked, trying to not let her tears reach her eyes. She heard her phone ring, but she didn't answer it. There was nothing that could distract her, not even a few members of the tennis team ahead of her.

"So, as I was saying, I really think that Sanada shouldn't have gotten that mad at me for having some candy right after practice. I was tired and I needed energy. It would've been worse if I fainted, or gotten some kind of no-sugar-in-my-body attack and died, right?"

"You have enough sugar in your body to last you a good year, Bunta."

"Still! I was just hungry! He didn't have to- what?" he flipped his head and looked at Megumi who had no idea what just happened. She kept walking past them, ignoring their calls out to her.

"Who was that, geez?" Marui scratched his head, upset that she didn't even apologize. He heard Niou give a small laugh.

"What? Do you know her?" Jackal asked.

"Yeah, she's my friend." He said and continued to walk. Jackal and Marui followed, unable to recall this girl ever being mentioned in their conversations.

By the time Megumi reached the street of her house, the sun was down and she had run out of words to feed herself. She groaned, tired of walking and sick of feeling sorry for herself. She figured it was time to go home and do some school work.

"Hey." She heard a much too familiar voice beside her. She looked over and saw him again. She blinked and rubbed her eyes and looked again. He was still there.

"What? You think I can disappear?" he laughed.

"You did say you had a secret. Is it that?" she asked. He rolled his eyes.

"Nope. Why aren't you home yet? School ended hours ago."

"I didn't want to be home. Why are you here? Are you following me?" she asked, stepping away from him.

"No, I live on this street."

"No you don't." she said. He drew his head back.

"Yeah I do, what makes you say that I don't?"

"I've never seen you here." She said and started walking. He sped up and walked by her.

"So? I've never seen you either. You could be the one lying."

"Something else about me, Masa, or whatever. I don't lie." She crossed her arms and avoided his gaze.

"Really? Okay…" he stayed quiet.

"What?" she asked when he stopped.

"Are you happy?"

"Huh?" she turned her head, seeing how serious he was. He didn't have a smirk, or any kind of smile on his face. His eyes were curious for an answer.

"You said you don't lie. I just want to know, are you happy?" he asked again. Megumi pondered for a minute. She didn't know how to answer. She loved everything at home with her brothers and father, but the moment she stepped out of the house, everything would feel as if it was crashing down on her shoulders.

"I can be. Just not at school." She said simply. He nodded with approval.

"I'll take that answer then. Oh, and in exchange for that," He pointed to the house they were in front of, "this is my house." Megumi looked at it and shook her head.

"No, that's not possible." She kept shaking her head.

"What do you mean? My name's right here!" he laughed at her.

"There's no way this is possible, I live right there." She pointed to the house right behind her. His eyes widened and was just as surprised.

"Damn, this is awesome. This is definitely one of the best days of my life." He couldn't stop his small laughter.

"How?" she asked. He had just witnessed someone try to die and got yelled at for coincidentally preventing it from happening. If it were anyone else, this day would go on the list of the worst days. He shrugged.

"Usually I'm the one creating surprises for people. It's fun to be confused and caught off guard sometimes. Oh, and I'll give you a bonus for giving me an awesome day. My real name's Niou Masaharu." He put his arms behind his head. That name rang a bell in Megumi's mind but she ignored it.

"Okay. My real name is Okada Megumi." She sighed.

"Cool. So, are you going to skip class to try to die again tomorrow?" he asked with absolutely no hesitation. Unexpectedly, Megumi chuckled.

"No, probably not." She smiled to him. In a second, the expression disappeared and she looked at the ground.

"You can smile too?" he leaned forward to try to catch it again. Megumi shook her head and gave him a blank face.

"I'll see you later, Masa." She said and turned to go home.

"Hey! I'm a third year, it's Niou-senpai to you!" he jokingly yelled at her.

"If you wanted to be called that, then you should've introduced yourself as that, not Masa." She said without looking at him. She opened the gate to her home and quietly laughed. Too much happened for her to understand what just happened. She shook it off and walked in the house, not turning to look at Masa again.

"I'm home." She said loud enough for people to hear in the house. She heard footsteps come toward her.

"Megumi~." Her third older brother showed up in front of her.

"Hi, Ken-chan." She smiled and walked past him.

"Why are you so late today? Did something happen?" he asked.

"Nope. I just wanted to be outside. Hi, Satoshi." She said to her second elder brother who was sitting on the couch.

"Hi, princess." He grinned to her.

"Fuck you, don't call me that." She shivered. He rolled his eyes and got up. The two of them stood in front of Megumi, giving strange looks to her.

"What happened today?" they asked at the same time. She shrugged and drank a glass of water.

"Same stuff. School, walking, re-thinking my existence." She said blankly and headed toward her room.

"Wait, wait, what? Explain that." Kenichi darted for her. She closed the door before they could ask anything else. He kept knocking, and she was used to this.

"Ken-chan, I'm okay. I was just exaggerating what happened." She yelled from her bed. There was a short silence, and she heard the two of them talk to each other quietly.

"Fine. Dad'll be home in an hour. Just please, Megumi, tell me if you want to transfer to my school. Aniki can pull some strings, I'm sure. It'd be awesome if we went to the same school for once." He said. She got up and opened the door.

"Ken. You go to an all-boys school." She laughed.

"Yeah. Cut your hair, buy new clothes, you'll fit right in!" he grabbed her shoulders.

"Your chest is small enough too." Satoshi laughed quietly. Megumi glared at him and closed the door again.

"Call me when dad's home!" she yelled. She sighed and sat on her bed. She realized that she could've been dead by now. She was supposed to be dead, that was the plan since days ago. Whatever happened, whether it was fate or coincidence, it gave her one more chance to try to possibly live. She didn't want to be thankful for it, but she couldn't suppress the light feeling of happiness. It was nostalgic, but she knew better than to dig deep in to this. She was sure that Masa would probably never talk to her again, and most likely tell others about how she wanted to kill herself. Friendships don't work that easily. If anything, it's complicated with a lot of things behind each-others' backs, and is too complicated for her to try again. She had no hopes for herself to make friends anymore. Which is why she knew she was better off dead.


	2. Chapter 2

Niou lay in his bed, dreading practice that's forty-five minutes away. He rolled over and groaned that it was five-fifteen, and cursed Sanada for convincing Yukimura to make practice begin at six in the morning. He looked at his phone and skimmed through the endless group message of the team, which he almost never participated in. He yawned as he stood up, and opened the curtain.

"It should be illegal for people to practice when the stars are still out." He complained and changed in to his practice clothes. He looked across the street and remembered every detail of the previous day. That was Megumi's house, and she was probably asleep right now. While most people would wonder how they never knew they were neighbors, it made sense with his practice schedule. But it was still a mystery how he had never seen her before, period. He didn't even notice her on the roof until the very last minute, and he couldn't be more relieved that he saw her at the right moment. He sort of felt guilty for pressuring her, and actually telling her to jump. But her reaction to that was priceless. Either way, he would have stopped her in the end, but the way she clung on to him made him sneer every time he thought about it. He stepped out of his house, looking forward to the rest of the day. He couldn't wait to get more out of the girl who wants to die.

"Niou-senpai, good morning!" a bunch of over-achieving freshman boys called out to him as he reached the courts. He gave slight nods to each of them, not wanting to waste any energy. It wasn't even game season, and Sanada was killing them.

"Hey, Niou, you're actually ten minutes early. That's new." Marui said. He raised his eyebrows, not looking at him. He tilted his head, stretching to try to wake up.

"Niou-kun, are you alright?" Yagyuu asked.

"You're in student council, Yagyuu. Who's Okada Megumi?" he asked, staring off in to space. He adjusted his glasses and thought for a while.

"I'm sorry, that name does not ring a bell. Is she in any of our classes?"

"No, she's a second year. I'd ask Akaya, but as always, he'll be late. Whatever, I'm gonna go confuse people." He said and walked away.

"He's acting a bit odd today. Did something happen?" Yagyuu asked Marui. He shrugged, and didn't have a chance to talk anymore once practice began.

Niou was practicing with a wall when Akaya showed up, breathless after his fifty laps. He walked to the water fountain and splashed his face with cold water to cool down. Out of nowhere, Niou grew the urge to annoy him, so he tossed a tennis ball to his head. He whipped his head around, eyes close to turning bloodshot.

"What the hell was that for!?" he yelled. Niou laughed and shook his head.

"I just wanted to. Don't worry, you're nothing special." He went back to practicing. Akaya almost growled, and turned around.

"Wait, practice with me for once." Niou invited. Akaya paused, wondering if he was plotting anything.

"No, I'm not plotting a single thing. Now come practice with everyone's favorite senpai." He said forcefully.

"Fine." He grumbled and walked over. Niou handed him a spare racket, but Akaya hesitated.

"It's not going to shock you, idiot." He said and threw it to him. Akaya glared at him when he grabbed it. They hit tennis balls at the wall in silence for a while, not knowing what to talk about. Niou was enjoying the confusion Akaya had on his face, and Akaya just wanted to know what he wanted out of him. He shut his eyes and drew a breath.

"Yes, I cheated on the last math quiz! Can you just stop taunting me!?" he breathed heavily. There was sweat pouring out of his forehead, and Niou could've sworn he was near tears. He burst out laughing.

"Where the hell did that come from!? I didn't even know you had a quiz."

"What." Akaya stood still, realizing he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He turned around and started to walk away, but Niou grabbed his collar.

"Not so fast, kid." He smirked. Akaya hung his head, waiting for the worst black mail possible. And he thought he'd gotten that the week before. There was no limit to Niou, and he kept having to learn the hard way.

"What do you want, senpai? Take the blame for a prank made on Sanada-fukubuchou again?"

"Nah, it's pretty boring when you're not given credit for pranks. I'll use this information for another time." He let him go. Akaya relaxed his shoulders, happy he could forget this incident for the rest of this day, at least.

"Okada Megumi. Is she in any of your classes?" Niou asked without thought.

"Huh? Okada? Megumi? I don't know anyone with those two names combined. Why?"

"Really? Even in different classes and grades, you don't know her?"

"Nope. Why do you need to know?" Akaya said, thinking that he was plotting another prank on a girl that's fallen for him.

"Are you sure? She's this tall-ish, brown hair to her neck, a bit wavy, kind of snappy attitude." Niou tried to describe her.

"You just described the average Japanese high school female, except she doesn't have bangs."

"Oh she has those, just side swept, not to the front like the average person."

"Wait, if you know her more than I most likely do, why are you asking me? She's your friend." Akaya asked. Niou didn't know how to explain the entire situation.

"She showed up at my roof and I just wanted to know if she's going to take over it with her friends or something." A simple lie flowed. It was his God-given talent, and he used it to his full advantage.

"Oh. Well, I guess I'll ask if I figure out who she is."

"No, don't do that." Niou said, thinking she would get extremely confused and just get angry. Even though he loved the face she made when she was both of those emotions.

"Just tell me or Bunta. And by the way," Niou darkly glared in Akaya's eyes, "I never **ever** asked you about this." He said and left him standing there, terrified of what would happen to him if he spoke a word about what just happened.

Bunta tapped Niou's shoulder as they headed out of the club room. Niou didn't understand how energized he could be at times, especially when they both had a test right after this.

"What?" he mumbled.

"What's with you today? You seem really annoyed. Like when a girl won't stop confessing to you." Bunta asked as they walked to class.

"Really? Well, that's not what I'm annoyed about." He rolled his eyes.

"Then what's annoying you?"

"Not telling you. Hey, tell Takahashi that I might be a second late and that he's stupid for me." Niou said as he walked another direction.

"Uh, no to the second part, but why are you going downstairs? That's the second year level."

"I know. Don't worry about it."

Niou braced himself for a big crowd. He loved screwing over girls that liked him, but not girls in a younger grade. He never believed they were worthy of his tedious pranks and illusions. But he did know that there were plenty of second year fan-girls and even fan-boys that would freak out if he even made eye-contact with one of them. But the only person he was searching for was Megumi. He kept denying that he was attracted to her, since he hated sappy, fate themed love stories, but he just wanted to know where she was. It was pretty much proven that she is invisible to everyone here, especially if Yagyuu had no idea who she was. He claimed he knew everyone in the school, but apparently, she was a different story.

"Oh my god, it's Niou-senpai!" he heard a girl shriek. And not even a second after, a stampede of young girls came up to him and created a crowd. Now, unlike Marui and Yagyuu and even Yukimura in these situations, rather than being nice and talking to everyone, he just passed by them, even pushing aside a few people.

"He just touched me. Oh gosh, I think he's into me!" he heard every single girl exclaim. He rolled his eyes and turned to all of them.

"No. I don't like any of you." He said. Another shriek by all of them, and some possibly close to passing out. He rolled his eyes and tried to brush off his annoyance. Megumi wasn't anywhere in the halls, and he didn't dare ask any of those girls because, for one, they would get high off of his breath after speaking, and two, it would risk her life if they believed he was even slightly interested in a girl that's not them.

' _Well, if it gets her killed, would she appreciate me?'_ he thought. He stopped moving, realizing how fucked up he sounded. But he still gave a small laugh under his breath. He shook his head, realizing he was losing focus. He turned to look in Akaya's class and he saw him talking to another guy at his desk. Then he saw Megumi. Sitting and looking through her phone, seeming to block out the rest of the world. But then again, no one was talking to her either. He let out a breath, annoyed at Akaya for not even knowing the name of the girl who sat right next to him, and most likely got the math answers off of. He rolled his eyes and walked in.

"Hey, Akaya! Where were you this morning? We didn't see you at practice."

"Huh!? Niou-senpai? What are you doing here?" Akaya said, scared of what was happening.

"I just came to ask why you didn't come to practice today." Niou said with a serious face. He stood by Megumi and rested his arm on her head.

"What do you mean I wasn't at practice? I was there with you!" Akaya shouted. Megumi hadn't even flinched.

"Uhh, no you weren't. Sanada just needs to know why you weren't there to figure out how many laps to give you after school today." He slid his arm around her neck, and she hadn't even turned to look at him. And even more surprisingly, no one was questioning him either.

"Senpai! I was right there, standing next to you, when you asked about something Megumi or whatever, and you threatened my life with a bunch of stuff!" Akaya yelled. Finally, Niou felt Megumi's head turn, and they made eye contact for the first time since the day before. She looked utterly confused, and he just raised his eyebrows at her.

"Akaya. You're dreaming." Niou said in Akaya's voice.

"Wha…" Akaya stood there, his brain almost melting in frustration. Niou turned to Megumi and let his arm go.

"Hey, Megumi. Tell me how Akaya acts the rest of the day." He smirked.

"Okay. Uh, you should go, Masa, you're going to start attracting attention to this general area." She said.

"Woah, you're still gonna call me Masa with absolutely no honorifics?" He patted her head. She shrugged and went back to looking at her phone. He gave a small laugh.

"I'll see you at lunch, Megumi. And do me a favor, if Akaya asks when he came in class today, try your best to convince him that he's dreaming." He said with his face close to hers. She put her finger to his forehead and slightly pushed him away.

"I'll do as much as I can. And I don't remember agreeing to eat lunch with you." She said as the bell rang. He lightly tugged her hair as a form of payback.

"You don't really have a choice. See you in a bit, Megumi." He swiftly left the classroom, not letting her argue with him. His way back was nice and relaxing since no one was in the hall. He debated about even going back to class, but he remembered that he had a test. He wasn't a fan of chemistry too much, but it was easy for him to do. It was just too irritating to complete everything. But what was even more irritating was the lecture he was receiving for being late. He was just daydreaming and not listening to anything the teacher was saying. It was all just stupid background noise to him anyway. When he realized he was done, he bowed and went to his seat.

"What the hell were you doing? And why do you have that yellow lunch box?" Bunta whispered behind him.

"Hmm?"

"Whatever. But hey, during lunch, help me with my math homework. I'm confused on the last problem."

"Ehhhhhh nope, can't." he looked at him up-side down. Marui frowned.

"Why? You're good at math."

"I'm eating lunch with a friend. And if Akaya asks, he was never at practice this morning." He sat back up. He smiled out the window, happy that he was able to steal Megumi's lunch without her noticing. Marui was confused, but that was the usual feeling when you're a friend of Niou Masaharu.

* * *

The clock had the reflection of every student's eyes as it was only a minute until lunch. Marui yawned, Megumi was panicking about her lunch in silence, Akaya's brain was in pain, and Niou was simply leaning on his chair, waiting for the ring to silence the teachers. He threw a piece of paper across the room and made it in the trash can. This language teacher had already given up on scolding him, even though it was only the third week of school. He smiled to her, and she gave a heavy sigh and left the room right as the bell rang.

"Niou, can you just give me your homework sheet?" Marui asked immediately.

"Yeah, don't tell Sanada." He said and got up.

"Thanks, man. But who's this new friend? You never eat with other people." He swallowed his gum.

"Oh, she agreed to meet you tomorrow. We can be the three best friends." Niou sarcastically. Marui glared at him for making fun of him.

"I'm kidding, but yeah, you should meet her. She's funny." He said and left the classroom. Rather than going to Megumi's classroom, he went straight to the same roof, believing that she would know where to go. He opened the door, and felt the breeze. He loved it. He loosened one of his buttons on his shirt and walked toward the edge. The ground was a lot farther than he thought, and he shuddered, knowing that Megumi was close to stepping off from it.

"Masa! What the fuck!?" He heard Megumi shout right behind him. He grew a smile and turned to her.

"Hmm~?" he hummed and tossed her lunch in the air. Her eyes grew, and she tensed her shoulders.

"I knew it! You better not drop it, I'll push you off." She threatened.

"How will you push me if you didn't even have the guts to jump off yourself yesterday?" he leaned toward her. She drew her head back and grabbed her lunch from his hands.

"You're a fucking jerk, you know that?" she said and headed to the door. Niou slammed it shut before she had a chance to reach the handle.

"I prefer being called a trickster." He sneered and sat right in front of the door.

"So you were serious about me not having a choice of where to eat lunch?" she complained.

"Yup. So sit, and chill. Don't waste these thirty-minutes." He leaned back. Megumi, not having anything else to do, listened to his suggestions. She opened her lunch and started eating.

"So, how was Akaya?" Niou brought up, extremely curious about how he was in class.

"Oh, that guy? He talked to me for the first time in my life, it was weird."

"Yeah? What'd he say?" he reached for a piece of chicken. She ate it before he could take it.

"He asked if he was dreaming. I might've made things worse." She shrugged.

"What? How did you do that?" he leaned a little closer to her. For a second, her face turned red.

"Well, he asked me if we were in real life. But I told him that he was in another world and that the school was a school for people with magic powers." She said as she ate her last bite.

"Damn you eat fast. But, what!? How did he take that?"

"Oh it was hilarious. He believed everything, from how the teacher is actually planning to destroy the world, to how my power is invisibility." She laughed. Niou had to give a small chuckle to that. He was glad that she at least was able to carry a happy emotion.

"But hey, I seriously had no idea how invisible you really are. Like, no one even acknowledged you." He said, not caring about how harsh that might've sounded. But it made her laugh again.

"Yeah, it really is like a super power. But I almost lost it when you showed up." She scoffed at him.

"Well, I'm sorry about that." He patted her head. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. As long as I'm still non-existent to everyone else, I'm fine." She sighed.

"Oh, that's gonna change. You're meeting Yagyuu and Bunta tomorrow." He told her.

"No I'm not. You can't do that to me." She said with a denying face.

"Oh, trust me, I can." He smiled and ran his hand through his hair. He saw her turn red again and he smiled to himself.

' _You're way too much fun to let go of.'_ He thought and patted her head again, despite her annoyed looks.


	3. Chapter 3

Megumi sat in her last class ignoring end of the day speeches by the class rep. All she could think about was Masa invading her space completely with no hesitation. She just wanted to know what his intentions were. Why was he talking to her this much, and why he wasn't scared to push the questions about killing herself already. It was as if he believed they were already friends, but Megumi didn't know how she felt about that. She already failed at having friends at school before, so she didn't really want to try again.

"And the school dance team is having a… dance workshop for any students who wish to learn beginner ballet, jazz, or hip-hop on Friday after school, if anyone is interested." She heard the rep. Her stomach turned and her shoulders felt heavy. Her hand subconsciously went to her right forearm, which had multiple lines and scabs. She rested her head on the desk and stared in to space, with a cloud of heavy darkness rested above her. That feeling of killing herself was growing again, and it took over her in no time. She didn't know if the bell rang or not, but she wasn't ready to get up. Her feet were too heavy to move, and it would be too much of an emotional toll for her to go to a crowd of people. She hid her face and closed herself off from the class.

* * *

"Hm?" Megumi opened her eyes and saw her empty classroom. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, trying to see what time it was.

' _Three-forty-five?'_ she thought. She wasn't even trying to go to sleep. If anything, she wanted to go straight home after school. She stood up and got her things together. She headed out the door, only to find the fliers for the dance work shop. She heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed her head.

' _It's like a sign telling me to just leave.'_ She thought. She stared at the names of the main team members, and she hung her head just in case anyone saw her. A group of boys ran by, rushing to get to some practice after their detention. One of them ran in to Megumi, making her drop most of her things, but they made no effort to stop. To them, she was invisible, and that meant they had no reason to see what happened.

"S-Sorry, Okada!" she heard ahead of her. She didn't dare look up, but her heart skipped. She was positive the voice belonged to Kirihara, the boy that sat next to her. But there were already tears falling out, and she didn't want anyone seeing that. She put all of her things together again, but sat in place. The thought of going to the roof came by, but she missed her dad who couldn't come home the previous night since he missed his flight, and she wanted to see him. Then again, the dark feeling in her chest wasn't disappearing. And there was only one way to get rid of that. She looked in her bag for the sharpest object she could find. But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. She threw her bag on the floor and rubbed her face. She figured her brothers went through it after what happened the day before. She groaned and looked up at the ceiling.

' _What do I do now?'_ she wanted to cry everything out, but she was still worried about being seen by someone.

"Excuse me, miss, um, are you alright?" a person said above her. She turned her head and saw a person with glasses and purple hair. She nodded, and faked a small smile.

"I'm fine." She said as she stood up.

"Please wait. Is there anything I can help you with? You seem troubled." He said, tilting his head.

"Do I?" she raised her eyebrows and rubbed her eyes to try to hide the redness.

"I'm sorry to say, but yes. I'm in class council so I may be of help." He fixed his glasses. She rolled her eyes.

"Trust me, there's not much more the school can do to drive me away." She looked at him sharply. He held his head back.

"Pardon?"

"Don't worry about it." She said and walked away.

"Wait, are you possibly Okada Megumi-san, the one that Niou-kun asked about?" he said when she was half way through the hall. She stopped walking, and looked at him.

"Masa asked about me to you?"

"Yes. I'm not sure what he needed, but he asked about you this morning at practice." He smiled softly. Megumi didn't know what to think. Did he want something from her?

"Um, okay… Did he say something about me?" she asked shyly.

"Not quite. But Marui-kun did tell me that he asked about you a few times in the day. And how he went to see someone at lunch time, and I'm going to guess that was you. Are you a friend of his?"

"Uhh, I just met him yesterday." She scratched her head. He gave another smile, seeming to hide something.

"I see. Well, I am going to see him at practice soon. Would you like me to say something to him?" he offered. She stood still, surprised at what this guy was saying. Masa, the guy who dared her to jump and joked that she wasn't able to, was asking about her to other people. She shook her head, not knowing how to even take in this information.

"No, that's fine."

"I understand. And are you feeling alright? I can't help but notice that you were crying just a few minutes ago." He walked a little closer to her. She nodded.

"Alright. And I'm Yagyuu Hiroshi, by the way. I'm not sure if Niou-kun told you about me though." He gave a soft chuckle.

"Oh, he actually told me that I was supposed to meet you tomorrow." She said, remembering what Masa said to her at lunch.

"Is that so? Well, I guess I'm a day early. But I must head to practice now. I apologize if I made you late to anything."

"No you didn't."

"Well, I'm glad that you are alright. And I believe I will see you tomorrow. I finally understand what Niou-kun was trying to say today."

"Wait, what was he trying to say?" Megumi said, feeling like Masa was going to pull another small trick on her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, that is a mystery you are going to have to solve yourself." He smiled and walked away. Megumi rolled her eyes and turned the other way to go home. During the walk, though, she couldn't stop wondering what Masa wanted from her. Why was he asking about her to people? Was that the reason why Kirihara actually saw her today? And the guy that she just talked to, also happened to be friends with him. But to her, there was no way he thought of her as a friend. That just wasn't possible. She could already guess that he is going to forget about her by the end of the week, and just leave her to be invisible again. Just like her third year in middle school.

Megumi decided to visit Satoshi at his job, since crepes were often another solution to feeling down. She really hoped that he didn't guess what happened and gave her another long talk about it. But if anything, she preferred to talk to him, instead of Kenichi or Hiroki, her fourth older brother. Satoshi was the type to listen to what happened and not lecture her about feelings that she couldn't control well anymore. And she hoped that he would discount her since her wallet was near empty. He didn't seem too busy, and he finished taking an order. After he told a girl what to make, he turned and saw her. His face lightened up and he gave a small wave. She did the same, and thought about what to get.

"Hey, Megumi. You came just in time." He laughed.

"I did? What happened?" she leaned on the counter.

"See that red-head?" he whispered and tilted his head in his direction, "He ordered four crepes, and we're working on the last one." He said. She looked at him, and his face was familiar, despite the amount of whip-cream around his face. Then she noticed his uniform which was from Rikkai.

"You know him?" Satoshi asked.

"Nope. So, what's something I can get for three-hundred yen?" she asked with pleading eyes. He laughed at her.

"Megumi, the cheapest thing here is five-hundred."

"I'll pay you back eventually." She tried to negotiate. He sighed.

"Fine. This never happened, okay?" he said sternly and messed with the POS.

"Thanks, Satoshi." She softly smiled. She looked behind her to check if there was anyone was waiting.

"Megumi, did something happen today?" he asked, his smile gone. She shrugged.

"It doesn't matter." She said.

"Yes it does, Megumi. I'm busy right now, so can you talk to me tonight?" He reached over to hold her shoulder. He looked sadder than her from earlier, and she felt guilty.

"Okay." She mumbled and looked away.

"Anyway, it's my turn to go to the back and do some dishes. Kanae-san will give you a surprise crepe." He said and turned to leave.

"Thanks Satoshi. I'll see you at home." She said.

"Yup, bye, Megumi." He said as he went in the kitchen. Megumi waited at a table, knowing that he made her something special out of pity, and that it was going to take a while. She looked at her phone to pass time. There was nothing new, and she couldn't wait to go home. Her eyes wandered around and she almost didn't hear her name being called.

"Hi, Megumi-chan. Your brother asked for something really special, but I added some stuff for you too." Kanae said. Megumi didn't know her well, but she was very nice to her.

"Thank you Kanae-san." She said and left so she could give the other crepe to the guy with the whip-cream mustache. The crepe she got was fairly large and had strawberries, bananas, chocolate syrup, and some ice-cream. She wondered what the surprise was inside and took a bite.

"Hey! Wait up!" she heard someone yell. She ignored it, figuring it was for someone else.

"Hey, can you not hear very well or something?" the same person said. She looked beside her, and the mustache guy was right there.

"Uhhh, I'm sorry, what?" she asked after she swallowed her bite.

"I called out to you right after I remembered who you were! I'm not mad about it anymore, but you ran in to me yesterday, and you didn't say anything." He said, still walking with her. His smile was brighter than anyone she knew, and she couldn't remember what he was talking about.

"It's okay, you seemed pretty out of it. I'm Marui Bunta, the genius of the Rikkai tennis team. I'm friends with Niou." He said as he scarfed his crepe down his throat. Megumi was bewildered by the amount he ate, and how fast he finished it.

"So, are you the one that Niou had lunch with today? He asked about you a lot." He kept talking.

"About me?" she had the chance to say something back.

"Yup. I'm pretty surprised, actually. No offense to you at all, but he really doesn't like to bother with younger girls usually." He said.

"You can see me?" Megumi blurted. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"What? What kind of question is that?"

"No, I'm just really surprised that you actually see me. You and the guy that sits next to me and uhhh… that purple haired senpai."

"You mean Yagyuu?" he asked.

"Yes, that name." she said, really surprised. He suddenly burst out laughing.

"Wait, are you asking if we can see you?"

"Kind of…" she said shyly. He poked her cheek multiple times.

"Well, I see you're human, and I can feel you, so you're for sure not a ghost." He said. She turned her head and brushed his hand away. He laughed again.

"You're funny. I can see why Niou's friends with you."

"I just met him yesterday." Megumi mumbled, starting to get irritated about them using that word so easily. He shrugged.

"Oh, well, apparently you're having lunch with me too tomorrow. And I wouldn't try to argue with Niou. If he tells you to meet him somewhere, do it. He might try kidnapping you." He nodded with knowledge.

"What is he?" she asked shaking her head, not knowing if it was a good idea to talk to him anymore. Marui smiled.

"If he's your friend, it'll be an adventure. I have to go now, but I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. And your name is Megumi, right?" he asked. She nodded. He gave another bright smile.

"Okay then. I'll see you later, Megumi-chan." He waved and turned. Megumi stood in place, trying her hardest to remember his name again. She lowered her head and let a long, deep breath out. This day was one with too many ups and downs. All she wanted to do was go on the roof of her house and be alone for a while. She knew this would probably upset her father, but this was something he was going to have to accept. She put her headphones in and walked home, praying for a walk home with no interruptions this time. Even if she heard her name being called, she would pretend she didn't hear it. But she still couldn't get Masa out of her thoughts. The fact that he was talking about her to other people meant that she was probably going to get noticed by other people. She was okay with that with the third years, but if word about her travel to the first years, she knew that she would be hated by the entire class.

"We seriously could've won." She mumbled, thinking about her year as captain of the dance team her third year of middle school. She shook her head, trying to forget about what happened.

' _I really wish she didn't fail.'_ She remembered someone saying. The dark pit was growing in her chest again, and she sped up her pace to get home. She needed to relieve the feeling as soon as possible, before her brothers caught the aura.

"Megumi, stop walking." She heard Masa's voice. She pushed herself to ignore it, and kept forward.

"Megumi." He grabbed her wrist. She stopped and turned around.

"What do you want!? Just leave me alone, for God's sakes." She yelled and turned back around. Faster than expected, Niou stepped in front of her.

"Why'd you just yell at me? That's not something friends really do." He crossed his arms, not letting her step away. She squinted her eyes.

"I don't know. Wait, it's because we're not friends!" she argued. He pulled his head back, as if he was really surprised.

"Wait, we're not friends? We've covered every step of friendship." He said.

"And what the hell is that?"

"I'm glad you asked. But I'll give credit to Bunta, since he's the one who created it." He said, preparing himself. He cleared his throat. Megumi rolled her eyes.

"Hey, show some respect. Step one, we met. That was easy. Step two, we know each other's names, remember it, and you call me something different, so you actually have a chance of being my best friend. Lucky you." He patted her head. She raised her eyebrow.

"Step three, we ate lunch together today."

"That was more by force…" she muttered. He covered her mouth.

"Don't sweat the details. Step four, we know a small secret of each other." She pulled his hand down.

"I don't know your secret." She snapped.

"Oh, yeah, huh… Well, let's see. What's a secret I'm willing to give away…" he said and stood in thought. Megumi tried leaving him, but he put his arm out.

"Okay. You have to promise not to tell." He said and stuck out his pinky.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Not right now. Come on~." He put his hand in front of her. Megumi stared at it, waiting for it to disappear.

"I'm gonna wait here until you do it." He said. She groaned and aggressively wrapped her pinky around his.

"Alright. So, yesterday, when you were about to jump off, you remember when I said that if you actually did it, I'd have to show you a secret? Well…" he looked around to see if anyone was looking. He pulled out her headphones and went next to her ear.

"I have wings. If you jumped, I would've had to fly and catch you." He whispered. Megumi had a small feeling of irritation in her, but something else beat her. She started to laugh.

"Really? That's what the secret is? You would've flown for me?" she asked, still laughing. She saw an honest smile grow on his face.

"Yup. And step five, make each other laugh. Therefore, Okada Megumi, we are friends now." He bowed.

"That's according to your other friend, right?" she asked, getting herself together again.

"Yeah, and I'm smarter than him, but I'll go with it." He said, starting to walk. She shook her head and followed to get home.

"You know, I should get a bonus point from you. I saved you yesterday, and I gave you three more possible friends." He added.

"Eh, that doesn't count, that was a coincidence. Once I see those wings, I'll give you the bonus point." She joked.

"Wow, okay… Wait, did you just make a joke?" he said, surprised.

"Um… yeah? What? Is it that shocking to hear me laugh or joke?"

"Well, considering that you were trying to kill yourself, yeah, that's a huge throw off." He laughed.

"Yeah, so is knowing a person who apparently has wings." She said and stopped walking.

"I'll see you tomorrow Masa." She turned to walk inside her house. She saw her brother looking through the window mouthing words she couldn't make out.

"Yeah. Hey, you should stop by our practice tomorrow morning." He suggested.

"No, I'd rather not." She said and left him.

"Fine, you're having lunch with us though." He said before she shut the gate door on him.

"Not unless you make me." She said. Then, Megumi saw the biggest smirk on him yet.

"Thanks for permission. Bye, Megumi. Watch out for the death Gods." He said. She rolled her eyes and walked inside. Right in front of her was Kenichi with his hands on his hips, and glaring eyes. She took her shoes off and ran in to the kitchen, hoping to see her dad.

"Hey! I have some questions, Megu!" she heard Kenichi dart after her. She ran to the living room, only to find the person she missed the most.

"Dad!" she yelled and hugged him from behind. She didn't care that he was in the middle of reading the newspaper. All that mattered was him finally being home after being in California for a month.

"Oof, hi, Megumi. Don't hug too tight, I want to live long enough to see your face today." He said. She let go of him and he turned around. She felt like crying, but she thought that it would send the wrong message.

"Megumi, I missed you." He said, smiling.

"Megumi! Who was that guy you were talking to?" Kenichi asked, walking toward them. Her dad looked at her with suggestively.

"Oh, one month I'm gone and you get a boyfriend?" he asked. Megumi looked at Kenichi.

"No, he's just a guy from school. Who happens to be our neighbor." She crossed her arms.

"Well, why were you walking home with him? Were you guys hanging out or something?" Kenichi leaned forward. She got a little annoyed.

"No. We just ended up on the same street at the same time. Coincidence is a good word for it." She said and went to her room.

"Well… is he your friend or something?" he and her dad followed her. She gave half a smile.

"Hm… Something like that." She said and caught a small glimpse of their dumbfounded expressions before she shut the door. She lay in her bed, that feeling of happiness hitting her again. It felt so much better than the darkness she was feeling just a few minutes earlier. She knew most of it was because her dad was home, but she had to admit, that some of it, was because of Masa. She didn't know what was going on anymore, but some faith was growing.

' _Maybe we can be friends.'_ She thought, and lightly smiled to herself.

* * *

 **Thanks for the follows and reviews everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

Niou practiced thinking about how he would approach Megumi that morning. He debated between actually just simply inviting her to lunch, and stealing her lunch again. Of course, stealing would be more fun, and her reactions were priceless like always. The only problem he had with talking to her in school was having to go to the second year level. And he was sure that she wouldn't go to his classroom on her own will. He had the thought of making Bunta convince her, but he would give up the second she said no, he believed.

"Hey, uh, Niou-senpai?" Akaya came from behind him.

"Hm? Do you have a secret for me?" he turned around. He shook his head with fear.

"N-no, not today. But, you know your friend, Okada? I kinda did something messed up, and she might be mad at me." He said. Niou crossed his arms, and put on an angry face.

"What did you do Akaya?" he glared. Akaya gulped, growing scared of what was going to be the cause of his death.

"A-a-all that happened was I was running from detention, you know, to get to practice so Sanada-fukubuchou wouldn't slap me, or make me run, or both, which he actually did because I had detention."

"Get back to the point."

"Y-yeah. And when I was running, I didn't notice her until right after I bumped in to her. And I made her drop everything. I looked behind me, and she was on the floor. I yelled sorry, but… I might've made her cry." He said with sweat dripping from his forehead. He was panting, fear spilling from all of his pores. Niou raised his eyebrows, wondering if that was really the reason she was crying. He remembered Yagyuu telling him that he saw her crying too, which is why he waited at the end of the street to see if she was doing any better at the end of the day. He mentally sighed, but kept an angry expression to freak Akaya out.

"Okay. Well, you're apologizing to her today, you know that, right?" Niou said to him.

"I was already planning on that."

"Good. I'm going to be there to witness it. And I would watch out for me, Akaya." He said. Akaya gave one small, scared nod and walked away.

"Puri." He said to himself, quietly smiling.

"What'd you do to him this time, Niou?" Marui asked.

"Nothing. Want gum?" Niou offered, sticking out a piece.

"Sweet, yeah!" he said, and tried to take it. Failing to recognize the gum, it shocked his hand.

"Ow! Stop doing that!" he yelled.

"Stop falling for it." Niou said and made it disappear. Marui shook his hand, trying to get rid of the feeling.

"Anyway… So, I saw your friend yesterday." He blew a bubble.

"Oh, you too? When?"

"I was getting crepes. And she was really close to the guy that was working there. I think she even got her crepe for free. I'm so jealous."

"Hmm~. What did you think of her?"

"Well, I only talked to her for a few minutes. She's pretty quiet." He said.

"Or you might've been the one talking too much, you know." Niou pointed out. Just before Marui made a comeback, Sanada looked over at them. Niou quickly turned in to Akaya, hoping he wouldn't get the blame for being lazy.

"Marui! Niou! Get back to swinging!" he yelled at them.

"Damn." Niou mumbled and switched back.

"Okay guys, bring it in to the center courts!" Yukimura called over. Marui and Niou grinned to each other, happy they didn't have to work anymore. They jogged over to where their captain was, wondering if there was anything new going on.

"Alright guys, as always, there's a lot for you guys to improve on. You need to run faster, swing stronger, and return sharper. We need to get back to the top." Yukimura started. The freshman looked down, disappointed in what he was saying, but the second and third years didn't have a single feeling hurt. This was expected by Yukimura. Unless everyone attained the strength to take a person's five senses away, everyone sucked at tennis in his eyes.

"There isn't anything after that. I'll see all of you after school. Everyone but the regulars are dismissed."

"Thank you very much!" the team yelled and ran to the club room. The regulars walked over to Yukimura, wondering what he had to say.

"What's going on, Yukimura?" Jackal asked.

"Don't you think he'll tell us without asking?" Marui said. Yukimura chuckled.

"Bunta's right. It's nothing that important. It's just that I want your opinions on whether we should get a club manager or not."

"A manager? Why do we need that? Yanagi-senpai's already got that stuff covered." Akaya said.

"Yes, that's true. But that takes out some time out of his practice, I've realized." Yagyuu said. Sanada kept his arms crossed, seeming upset about the idea.

"Genichirou, why are you against it?" Yanagi asked, even though he most likely knew the answer.

"Oh you are? I thought you had the idea since you didn't want any of us not practicing." Marui blew a bubble.

"First, what have I told you about gum in the courts!? Spit it out or swallow it!" he yelled. Marui frowned and gulped.

"Anyway. I just think that it would be a distraction to us if a person is running around our courts, and being in our way."

"But that's not necessarily the job of a manager. The job we would give them would be… take note of our improvement or regression... What else…?" Yukimura said.

"Going to game registrations." Jackal added.

"Telling us how late Akaya was for the day." Niou rested his arm on his head.

"That's not necessary."Akaya mumbled.

"No, that's very important." Yanagi said.

"But we don't even have applications for a manager. How would we get one?" Sanada argued.

"Well, that was the second part. If we do announce that we need a manager, I feel that it would be a little chaotic with the amount of girls that are in love with Bunta and Niou."

"You too, Mr. Buchou." Niou smirked. Yukimura softly smiled.

"We don't have to talk about me. But just ask around to people personally. Don't make a single hint that we are looking for one, since we might agree that we don't need one." Yukimura warned.

"Did you hear that, Akaya?" Yanagi asked.

"Yes I did." He said, annoyed at how he was being treated.

"Well that's it. Have a good rest of the day everyone."

Niou walked back to the club room, thinking that the team has been running fine without a manager this whole time. He found it unnecessary, but wondered why Yukimura brought it up. Bunta was already giving suggestions to Jackal, but he disagreed with every single person. Sure they seemed capable, but to Niou, they were boring and wouldn't take any pranks well. And he only knew that because he's pranked them before.

"Hey, Niou, are you going to see that girl this morning?" Marui jumped behind him.

"Ehhhhhhh, yeah, why?" he stretched his back before buttoning his shirt.

"Can I go with you?"

"Why? She barely knows you."

"So? She barely knows you."

"Yeah, but we covered the steps of friendship that you created. She's friends with me, not friends with you, and you'll drive her away. So, no." Niou said. Marui slightly turned pink in the face.

"You told her that!? That stupid list of friendship is something I made in third grade, and you found it in the box of old things my mom kept, that was supposed to never be seen by anyone!"

"Yeah, and if you follow me there, I'll play that tape of you playing the recorder over the school radio." Niou raised his eyebrows. Marui shut his mouth, not arguing anything Niou just said.

"Alright. Don't be sad, Bunta, she's eating lunch with us anyway." He patted his shoulder.

"Did you even ask her yet?"

"Don't need to." Niou said and left the room. Right in front of him was Kirihara, who was trying to sneak away from the club room to not be caught by anyone. Niou smirked and swung his arm around his shoulder.

"Hey young man. Let me walk with you to class." He said. Kirihara squirmed out of his grasp.

"Senpai, I don't need you to come. I was planning to apologize anyway."

"Yeah, I just want to see her reaction." He said and pushed him ahead. He sighed and kept walking without talking to Niou at all. Luckily, most girls were scared of Akaya after crazy rumors about his devil mode got out. All of which Niou was responsible for, and he was glad he did, since no one came close to them on their way. They both noticed Megumi on her phone again, completely in her own world. Kirihara stood in place, looking confused.

"Are you walking in?" Niou asked. Kirihara shrugged.

"I-I just don't know how to approach her."

"Hm, I do." Niou said and pulled him by the arm. Out of nowhere, he tugged him stronger, and made him bump in to her. She tensed up but she didn't look up at him. Niou sighed, realizing that startling Megumi was not the way to get her attention. He hopped to the seat in front of her and straddled the chair.

"Megumi~. Hey." He leaned his face over to her. She lifted her eyes to him. They seemed tired and slightly red.

"Oh, hey. I noticed you walking in, but I didn't want to say hi." She said. Niou smirked.

"Well at least you're admitting that you notice me. But hey, this kid has something to say to you." He pointed at Akaya who was still standing next to her, playing with his hands. Megumi was confused and looked over, making legitimate eye contact with the guy who always takes her answers during tests.

"Hey, uh… I'm sorry for bumping in to you. Yesterday, I mean, not now. Wait, but I'm sorry about right now too. But that was mostly because of Niou-senpai."

"Akaya, get back to the point." Niou glared at him. He was still slightly upset that Kirihara could have been the reason Megumi was sad the day before. Megumi tilted her head in confusion.

"What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry for hurting you and making you cry yesterday. I really didn't mean to." He slightly bowed to her. Megumi looked back and forth at Niou and Kirihara.

"Um… it's fine that you bumped in to me, I knew you didn't do it on purpose. I was just having a bad day." She said quietly.

"Oh. Well, still… I'm sorry." Akaya said and went to his seat.

"It's fine. And Masa, I really suggest you get out of that seat." She warned.

"Why? It doesn't matter." Niou scoffed.

"Senpai, that's our class rep's seat." Kirihara said. Niou just rolled his eyes.

"So, Megumi. Today. Lunch. My classroom." He pointed his finger up.

"Huh? What are you saying?" she said, leaning away from him. He sighed and softly laughed.

"You're eating lunch with me in my classroom today."

"I never agreed to that." She crossed her arms.

"It's going to happen."

"Nope. What are you going to do? Take my lunch again?" she grabbed it out of her bag and held on to it. He rolled his eyes, and mumbled "idiot" to himself.

"Hey, senpai, you should really get up. She's about to come in." Kirihara warned again.

"Oh, she's a girl? It's fine, they're all in love with me anyway." He leaned forward close to Megumi. She leaned back farther, knowing what was going to happen.

"Niou-senpai. You have two seconds to get out of my seat." He heard a familiar voice. He put on the most attractive smile he had prepared and turned to face her. What he got was a foot to his face, making him fall to the floor.

"Don't think that you can trick me with that stupid, smug smile, idiot." The class rep said. He rubbed his head and looked at her.

"Hina…" he glared at Kirihara. "You just couldn't mention that the class rep was Yagyuu's sister, could you?" Kirihara was grinning like there was no tomorrow.

"Why are you here anyway?" she said, annoyed, and slumped in her chair. Niou got up and shook his hair back in place. He sneered and placed his hand on Megumi's head.

"I'm just visiting a friend. I'll see you at lunch." He said to Megumi, who was shying away from the looks Hina was giving. He laughed to himself and headed for the door.

"Hey, Megumi." He softly called out to her. She turned her head to him, looking around as if there was an earthquake in the room. She squinted her eyes to focus on what he was tossing in the air. Her eyes grew large and turned in to a deep glare once she realized that he had managed to steal her lunch again. He threw a peace sign to her and walked away. He swept through the swarm of people rushing to their classrooms and sank in his seat one second before the bell rang.

"Hey, Niou, can I get a preview of what her lunch looks like?" Marui leaned over behind him. Niou thought about it quickly, and spun around.

"Alright, well this is yellow." He said when he unwrapped the handkerchief. Marui raised his shoulders, excited to see what was in it.

"Let's see how well she cooks." Marui said and lifted the lid. What they saw wasn't a single piece of food. The only thing in there was a folded piece of paper. Niou opened it and read the note.

"You can't fool me twice, Masa." He said outloud.

"Did you just get tricked?" Marui said, unable to believe what happened. Niou blinked his eyes, and his mouth stayed slightly opened.

"You just got tricked. NIOU MASAHARU GOT TRICKED!" Marui yelled.

"Shut up." Niou said and punched his head. He slouched over, feeling challenged by Megumi to do mess with her one more time. His grin grew pretty wide, thinking about what he could do to freak her out.

"Niou, don't do anything to get you arrested." Marui laughed, also happy that Niou got tricked for once.

"Bunta, I never get arrested. Or do anything illegal. Except that one time. But no one needs to know about that, right?" he looked over to a shuddering Marui.

"No. That is never to be spoken about."

* * *

Niou sat during all his classes, trying to figure out what to do to get Megumi back. All sorts of ideas went through his head, but none seemed to fit her. Nothing seemed okay to push her with just yet. Based on what she'd said before, she might take the slightest practical prank as him being an evil maniac, and she might wind up in the hospital because of him. He sighed deeply and looked over at Marui who stared right back at him.

"Do you have candy?" he whispered. Niou turned right back around, ignoring what he asked for. Marui tapped his shoulder with a pencil.

"No!" he whispered loudly. Then he thought of something perfect. He raised his hand.

"Yes, Niou-kun?" the teacher responded with fear.

"Uh, Marui and I have to meet at the club room about ten minutes before lunch. It's asked by Yukimura."

"That bright Yukimura asked you to leave class early?"

"Yeah, I was incredibly shocked too. But, is it okay if we leave? I don't like making our star tennis captain upset, and I know you don't either." He raised an eyebrow. The teacher gulped and gave them a nod of approval. The two grabbed their belongings and headed out of the class.

"Hey Niou, I'm not complaining that you made us miss that last ten minute lecture, but why did you?"

"Huh? Oh, I need to scare Megumi pretty bad. Let's go." He said and went down the stairs.

"And why am I a part of this?" Marui rushed toward him.

"Because the teacher wouldn't believe that only I needed to leave. Besides, wouldn't you love to see that super quiet Megumi talk back?"

"Umm… I don't want to answer that." He stepped away from him.

"Okay, whatever." Niou stopped in front of her classroom.

"Wait, we're going in right now?" Marui grabbed his arm.

"Yeah, we're saving Akaya and Megumi from the worst seven minutes of their lives. And we might as well save Hina too."

"Ugghhhh, why Hina? She's so sassy and annoying sometimes."

"Yeah, but I don't need to risk being questioned by teachers later." He said and knocked on the door. It was opened by a teacher that hated him the previous year.

' _Oh fuck.'_ He thought.

"Oh, well if it isn't Niou-kun. What do you need?" he said with a smug smile.

"Well, you see, uh, Yukimura needs to hold a team meeting so I need Akaya right now."

"And why should I believe that?" the teacher crossed his arms. Bunta stepped forward.

"It's true! Ask Hina-chan, she knows it's being held right now." He pointed to her. The two waved to Akaya and Megumi. Hina tilted her head in confusion. The teacher looked over at the three and walked over to Hina. Niou put his hands together and begged her to lie for him telepathically. She sighed.

"Is this true, Yagyuu?"

"Yes, my brother told me they were going to have an emergency meeting right before classes began this morning." Her eyes scanned back to Niou, who was aggressively pointing behind her.

"And… Oh, right, her." she flipped around and looked at Megumi who was looking around the classroom, her eyes not anywhere on the planet.

"Yeah, Okada needs to come too, she's our new manager." Akaya stepped in quickly. Marui and Niou deeply sighed and face-palmed.

"Very well. You two can leave." The teacher said. Akaya got up and shook Megumi's shoulder.

"What?" she asked, finally seeing who was in the classroom.

"Let's go." Akaya muffled under his breath and pointed to Niou with his head. There was still a big question mark above his head.

"Megumi, Yukimura's waiting, we have to hurry!" Niou yelled across the room, making all the attention go to her for the very first time since the school year started. She ducked her head and rested her head on her hand and tried to hide the blood rushing through her face. A few whispers went through students' mouths. She slowly stood up and took everything she could carry. The moment the door closed behind her, she turned straight to Niou, who was satisfied with her reaction.

"What the fuck is the matter with you." She punched his shoulder.

"Ow, why'd you punch me!?" he yelled as quietly as possible.

"Because you punched my invisible shield in class. Now, when I go back, I have to face the chances of me being called on, and people actually remembering me. So thanks for that, jerk." She punched his arm again.

"Okay, two is too much, Megumi."

"I'm not sorry. Why did you do that though, seriously?"

"He wanted to get you back for tricking him this morning with your lunch." Marui said, pulling her away from Niou.

"Who are you again?" she asked. Marui clutched his chest.

"You don't remember me?" she shook her head, slightly annoyed.

"We met yesterday!" he grabbed her shoulders. There was a slight pause, and she snapped her fingers.

"I remember! Yagyuu, right?" she said. He hung his head and dragged his feet to Niou.

"Megumi, be mad at me all you want, but little Akaya here may have made things complicated for you." Niou said, pushing Marui off his shoulder.

"What did I do? I got us out of class like you needed me to."

"Yeah, but now, everyone in that class now believes that Megumi is our manager. And if we say that she isn't, then everyone is going to try to be the manager and Yukimura is going to kill all of us." Niou explained in a deadly tone.

"Oh. Ohhhh. Oh." Akaya's sweat started to drip down his face.

"Well, Megumi, that means that for today, you have to come to our practice. Just in case anyone asks."

"No." she shot a glare.

"Yes." Marui and Niou said at the same time.

"Oh, you too?" Niou turned to Marui.

"I think it'd be fun to have her as a manager." He stepped next to Niou and got close to his face.

"Just imagine her reaction after saying she knows nothing about tennis, and Sanada freaking out." He whispered. Niou smirked.

"I'm so glad you're learning from me."

"So, was this meeting thing for real?" Akaya asked, feeling left out.

"Oh, I forgot about why this even happened. We're going upstairs to eat lunch, and Akaya, you can be first in line for the bread bar for once." Niou waved away.

"Sweet!" he yelled and dashed away. Niou and Marui pivoted to look at Megumi whose eyes were in swirls, due to the amount of confusion.

"Anyway, I'm Marui Bunta. Don't make me repeat that! I'm the awesomest person you could ever meet."

"I don't know, I've met a few cool people that's not you so…" Megumi rolled her eyes. Marui was taken back. He'd never heard a girl shut him down so fast, much less a second year.

"Oh yeah? Well, who might that be?" Marui challenged.

"I'm not telling you. Not today at least." She muttered. Niou grabbed her wrist out of nowhere, and started pulling her to the stairs.

"The bell's going to ring, and I am not risking any of our clothes to be torn off." He said. Hearing how serious he was, Megumi didn't try arguing with him.

"Is this your first time being on this level?" Marui asked, trying to show off.

"No, I've snuck here plenty of times before."

"Liar."

"I don't lie, bubblegum." She said. The two looked over to her.

"What did you just call me?" Marui asked.

"Bubblegum. You seem to always be chewing it, and you know, the same 'B' sound." She shrugged.

"Well, at least I'm not the only one with a weird nick name." Niou let a breath out.

"Masa is not a weird nick name." Megumi rolled her eyes and continued to follow him.

"Can't you just call me Bun then? Because bubblegum really annoys me."

"Okay, Bun-chan." She slyly smiled.

"Don't add a chan there!" he yelled. Niou shook his head, but he couldn't help feel a sense of jealously. He should be the only one with a shortened name from her. Megumi and Marui were still arguing while he was trying to shake off the want to tell Megumi to just call him Marui. That's all he deserved, he believed. He didn't stop her from jumping off the roof. He wasn't the one who was friends with her. He doesn't even live on the same street as her.

' _I have got to calm down.'_ He said. He looked over to her and realized he had started patting her head.

"Masa, can you actually stop please? My hair is actually kind of messy now." She complained. He calmly drew his hand back to his pocket.

"It's not even messed up, calm down."

"I am calm, you tell yourself that, Masa." She said while brushing her hands through her hair.

"Working on it." He mumbled as the bell rang, and the hallway became a sea of students rushing to get their food.

* * *

 **Sorry for being four months late… Lots of love is being sent your way, friends!**


	5. Chapter 5

' _Relax, relax, relax.'_ Megumi kept repeating to herself. She had absolutely no idea why Masa pulled her out of class, much less make the whole class remember she was actually there. It annoyed her, and gave her an unmeasurable amount of anxiety. It had lowered by the time Masa was done ruining her hair, and mumbling to himself. He was still a complete stranger to her and she was desperately trying to get rid of the curiosity about him. She knew how dangerous it was to get close to people, and had to protect herself from anymore humiliation and pain.

"Wow, you're not even listening, are you?" Marui pouted at her.

"Oh, you were talking to me?" she asked, her eyes focusing back on a pink head. She noticed that Masa actually wasn't there.

"Niou was right. He said to tell you that he'll be right back from telling the rest of our team that you're a fairy that only true tennis players can see so he can test the reactions of everyone. He's coming right back." He rolled his eyes.

"Where did that idea come from?"

"His distorted brain." Marui relaxed his shoulders.

"Hey, Bun-chan."

"You little cocky bastard… what?"

"Oh, I was just about to ask if you preferred me to call you Bun-senpai, or gum-senpai. I guess I won't get away with calling everyone without honorifics." She said with her eyes on the wall, barely looking at him. But she noticed his face lit up.

"You female bastard." He laughed, "Let's go with gum-senpai. Then for sure everyone knows you're talking about me."

"Cool." She said, giving an awkward smile.

"So! You want one?" he said, putting a piece of gum in front of her. She drew her face back.

"We're about to eat lunch, though." She said.

"Yeah, save it for later. Then tell me about it later." He said, nearly jumping up and down. She saw Masa walking toward them and he tilted his head to the side. She held up the gum he handed her, and he gave a soft laugh.

"Let him be excited. You ready?" he asked her.

"To meet the legendary tennis players of the country?"

"Uh, you already met him." He walked proudly, and she followed. She drew a silent breath and tried to calm herself down. It's been so long since she tried to even make eye contact with people other than her family, she's forgotten how to even introduce herself. Luckily, no one seemed to be staring at her.

"Yagyuu. Yes or no?" Masa said as they came closer to the seats near the other person she met the day before.

"Why, Niou-kun, I told you I discovered her yesterday." He adjusted his glasses and smiled softly to her. Although it was a few seconds late, she gave one back. She moved her eyes to the tan, bald person next to him. He was squinting and blinking, as if he was truly trying to see her. He shook his head.

"That was scary, my eyes were dry and I seriously couldn't see you for a second." He let a deep breath out.

"Come on Jackal, you're becoming too lame to be my partner." Marui took the seat next to him.

"Anyway, I'm Jackal, I swear I'm not as lame as I seem right now." He said and stuck his hand out. Megumi looked at it, then his face, then back at his hand. She froze and forgot what was supposed to happen.

"Uhhh, are you afraid of germs, or are you racist?" he raised an eyebrow. Her eyes shot to her face and she turned incredibly red for a moment.

"N-no, I…"

"I'm joking, relax. Take a seat." He laughed. She blinked and didn't know what to do. It seemed too much for her. Then a hand went to her head.

"Yagyuu, Jackal, Marui. Remember them, okay?" Masa said behind her and sat down. She softly nodded and drew another deep breath. Before she could slowly let it out, a set of hands set her down to a seat. She tensed up and looked up, and saw blue hair she's seen before.

"Hi, I could feel your anxiety from the room across." He said. Her memory was becoming fuzzy. She'd seen this face before, but she couldn't remember where. She's never seen a tennis match, and she's never paid attention to anyone from this school.

"Okada Megumi, right?" he smiled as he brought a chair over.

"I'm Yukimura Seiichi. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah. You too…?" she said, looking at Masa, wondering if he'd mentioned her to him before. But she saw him just as confused.

"So, what's today's update? Marui, Niou, you two seem a little more tense than usual. What's going on?" he asked, beginning his meal. She didn't even notice everyone else doing the same.

"Ask Akaya, it's his fault." Marui avoided his gaze.

"Oh. So it was his idea to leave class early and say it was mine?" he rested his chin on his fingers.

"Uhh… Uhh…" Marui couldn't think of anything. Niou acted as if he couldn't hear a thing.

"And I'm pretty sure there's something I'm going to have to tell Sanada about Okada-chan. Do you want to tell me now?"

"Okay, before you say anything, it was your idea to get a team manager. We could use one." Masa said, before swallowing all his food.

"Niou's right. This manager thing is all Akaya's fault." Marui jumped back in.

"Oh, she's our new manager? How wonderful." Yagyuu said. Jackal gave Megumi a thumbs up.

"Guys, let's take a step back. I didn't hear a word about her being our manager." Yukimura raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, me either." Megumi said quietly. She saw Marui and Masa freeze.

"Well, you don't have to be our manager if you don't want to." Yukimura said nicely. Megumi felt relieved. She didn't know a thing about tennis, and she for sure did not want to be involved with anything that had to do with teams and leadership anymore. Just the thought gave her shudders. Her world suddenly grew dark, remembering what had happened before. Words flew back and forth through her brain, and her heart felt hot and tired.

"Eat." She felt something on her mouth. It slightly opened and a cherry tomato went in her mouth. Masa was staring at her, and she felt like her mind was being read.

"You haven't even opened your lunch yet. I wanna see." Masa said, nudging toward her box.

"Oh, you're right." She said, and took it out. She felt everyone pay attention to it.

"We don't see girls' lunches too often, it's an experience for us." Marui said, unashamed. She felt a little bit of pressure but opened it. A tray of white rice, half a tray of avocado, and half a tray of imitation crab. She also took out a bag of dried seaweed and soy sauce.

"Woah." They all said at the same time.

"You brought sushi to school." Jackal said.

"I guess…" she said and started to put together mini California rolls.

"That's cute, Okada-chan." Yukimura smiled to her. She looked at him and tried to remember him. That soft voice and almost enchanting eyes were an incomplete memory to her.

"But, I have a favor to ask you. You can say no, but if it's true that the word got out that you're our manager, I'd like you to come see our practice today. If you can pretend every once in a while, it would help from outside distractions." He asked.

Megumi gulped, not knowing what would be the best thing to do. She had absolutely no obligation to the team, and she was allowed to say no if she wanted to. But unfortunately, she didn't know how.

"I guess I could. I don't know a single thing about tennis though, I hope you're aware of that." She said and immediately regretted it. This meant more introductions, more people noticing her, and even more people talking to her. A whole team of people. A team known by the entire country.

' _What the hell did I just get myself in to?_ ' she asked herself.

"Look, you can relax about it. I'll just have you do things for us regulars. I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want since you're doing this for us." Yukimura said.

Megumi continued to eat, not knowing what to say. She took a good look at everyone smiling toward her, looking excited. She had no idea why. They didn't know her, and she didn't know them at all. It hasn't even been a week since the day she met Masa and this was happening all at once. And what was she supposed to tell her dad and her brothers? She knew they would flip out over something she probably hadn't even thought of. Her head was beginning to spin, and she had no idea what people were talking about anymore. She was starting to forget what made her this anxious in the first place. She turned to look at Masa, who wasn't paying attention to her anymore. He was talking with Marui and Jackal, all done eating. She looked at her food and she had only had a few bites. Out of desperation to gain back her sanity, she poked Masa's shoulder. He looked at her, not knowing a single thought she was having.

"Yeah?" he asked. Her mouth slightly opened but words didn't come out. She bit her lip, embarrassed and nervous about how the group was looking at her. He started petting her hair again.

"Do you need something, manager?" he smiled at her.

' _Right, manager. Fuck, I don't know if I can do that._ ' She scratched her head, pushing away his hand.

"You'll be okay, just stay out of Sanada's way and he'll barely notice you." Marui said to her.

"Who?" she managed to say.

"Sanada. He's our vice-captain. He can be pretty intense and scary." Jackal said.

"Wow, what a good way to make her excited for the new position. Now she's going to run away scared."

"Well, I doubt he's that bad." Megumi thought out loud. They all stared at her as if she had just said her last words of her life.

"Oh, today is going to be great." Masa smiled to himself. Megumi took that as a fair warning. She immediately knew that this one smile was an automatic reaction Masa had when something out of the ordinary was going to happen. She got a little nervous, but the bell rang and she had to get nervous about something else now.

"Man, I barely got to hear you talk today." Jackal said, looking honestly disappointed.

"You don't deserve to." Marui said, putting his things away.

"Since when do you hate me so much?"

"I saw you spit out the gum only thirty minutes after I gave you some!" he pointed his finger, centimeters from his face. Yukimura lowered his arm, and chuckled to himself.

"You guys can settle that later. Okada-chan, do you know where the tennis courts are?" He moved his glance to her. She shook her head.

"Okay, you can ask Akaya, if he doesn't have to stay in class today. But if he does, go over to the gym, since we have the first years get supplies from there. If you follow them, you'll find us."

"O-okay." She said, forgetting majority of what he just said already. She had to go back to class, and this time, she knew people were going to notice her. That was the last thing she needed. And if people started remembering who she was, she was sure she had to make herself disappear, even if it took drastic measures.

"Hey, you're going to be late." Masa said and started pulling her arm. She let him take her but he paused once they were in the hallway. He looked at her and pointed upwards. For a second, she didn't know what he was trying to say. She looked up, and she understood. She gave one nod, and they headed for the roof.

"So, was that overwhelming for you?" he asked as Megumi was finishing up her lunch.

"Yeah. Not your friends, but the thing about being the manager and having to go back to class. I really don't know how I'm going to handle people seeing me again."

"Again? They could see you before?" he asked, proceeding to lie down and cover his eyes with his hair.

"Yeah, up to my first year here. And then I just tried to be invisible and it worked." She sighed. She stood up and walked to the edge. The ground looked far, like always, but the wind wasn't strong. She had control of what could happen. She turned around to look for Masa, but he was already standing a few feet behind her. A light wind passed by them as they looked right at each other.

"Take two steps towards me." He said. She was confused, but obliged. He let a breath out.

"Yeah, that freaks me out a little bit." He quietly said.

"You can get freaked out?"

"Apparently." He stuck his hands in his pockets and stood next to her. The two stayed quiet, of both speechless. But Megumi didn't feel the pressure to talk at all. She just looked ahead, wondering what kind of people live in the apartments she saw. Her eyes looked over at Masa, who was just enjoying the breeze. A small smile grew on her face, and she felt content. She let a breath out, hoping he couldn't see her face.

"I know you just smiled when you looked at me." He said, looking at her from the corner of his eye. She turned red and turned away.

"You know nothing." She mumbled, hating herself for finding him deeply handsome. She heard a small laugh as he followed her again.

"So, are you always like this?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Masa looked confused, and undid one of his buttons like before. Megumi calmly looked for something else to look at.

"I-I don't know. But you always say some crazy things to mess with people."

"Oh, that? I don't know, it's just fun. But now, most people don't react to it. Before, they would freak out like crazy and I'm left with a sense of satisfaction." He said. Megumi wondered why tricking people would give him any kind of satisfaction, but she ignored it. She knew it wasn't any of her business.

"What about you then?" he sat next to her, "Are you always this frazzled when people talk to you?"

"Frazzled?"

"Yeah, I could tell you were going insane earlier."

Megumi thought for a while. It's been so long since she's talked to so many people at once, she forgot how it was supposed to be done.

"It feels new. I'm barely able to carry a normal conversation even with you, it's crazy."

"But aren't we talking right now?" he asked, sounding honestly confused.

Megumi tilted her head. She wasn't even sure about it. Was this a normal conversation? What was the point of it? And why? Why were they both on top of the roof? Was he trying to mess with her? She didn't know what to think and she was digging a hole in her brain with a shovel of questions.

"Megumi." Masa said loudly. Her eyes shot forward and Masa was sitting in front of her with his hands on her shoulders.

"Relax, don't overthink what I just said." He said, and patted her head.

"Why do you do that?" she asked.

"Pat your head? Dunno, I just end up doing it. Kinda like how I freak the hell out of Akaya. It's not entirely on purpose, it's actually out of habit." He shrugged and pulled his hand back.

"Oh. But I don't really blame you, I'm sometimes shocked by the way he reacts to things in class."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Well… we were talking about sea animals, and he actually asked if mermaids count as one." She said, remembering that day. She actually did find it funny and wanted to tell him that it wasn't until three years ago that she let go of the belief of them.

"You're joking." Masa said, laughing.

"I felt bad when the class laughed at him about it, but he was so strong in defending himself. If you ask him now, he'd probably say they're real."

"I'm definitely going to ask. I appreciate you telling me, Megumi." He tugged her hair.

"How is that a form of gratitude?" she asked, scooting away.

"It's coming from me, just be happy." He said.

She rolled her eyes, and packed up her lunch box. She was surprised she wasn't freaking out anymore. Usually, once the thoughts came, they overflowed and wore her out. Her hand automatically went to her other arm and let a breath out.

"Hey. You don't have to show up today if you don't want to. I know Yukimura feels really bad."

"How?"

"I know everyone. Don't doubt me, Megu." He said sternly. She let out the smallest laugh possible. Her eyes grew wide.

"You just laughed." He said, smirking at her. Her smile vanished faster than light and she shook her head.

"No." she said.

"Alright. Whatever you say." He put his arms behind his head, but he didn't take his eyes off of her.

"Anyway. I guess I'll go. But I really don't want to talk to everyone. I could barely handle your friends earlier."

"Yeah, I know that. And Yukimura does too." He assured her.

"Yukimura. Who is he?" she asked, remembering she had a small memory of him.

"The child of God." He said blankly. She blinked three times, knowing he was joking around.

"His skills in tennis prove it."

"Okay. The bell's going to ring soon."

"Yeah. There's no point in heading back if we missed the one before this." He smiled and lay down. She smiled a little and brought her knees to her chest.

"Yeah."

* * *

After minutes of conversation and moments of silence, Megumi grew more and more nervous about the tennis team. She would have never admitted it, but she had no idea how scary that Sanada man would be. The last thing she wanted to do was cry in front of the team.

"It's going to ring for the final time." Masa said standing near the door.

"You were counting?" Megumi asked.

"Don't you?"

"No, I came here to escape running in to people. I would just get out when the sun looked darker, I never care about the bell now."

"You live such a simple life." He laughed and lifted her up by her arm.

"Hey, don't touch me." She said, struggling to get her wrist back. He pulled her to him, and inched is face so close, they were touching noses.

"Why not, Megumi." He slyly asked. Megumi's eyes widened and her face was heating up. He let go and laughed away from her.

"You turned red so damn fast! Man, Megu, always giving me a laugh." He said over the bell. Megumi let out a long breath and glared at him. She was mortified not only because he made her blush, but that she believed Masa would actually try something. He opened the door and gestured his hand to let you go first.

"I've only known you two days!" she yelled at him and walked out. She heard him laughing behind her, and walked forward, thinking it felt like she'd known him for months already.

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So, do I even have the right to post this? It's been a few years, and I feel bad, but this story is super personal to me, and I love coming back to it time to time. I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't, that's completely fine too. Thanks for even getting to this chapter!**

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Niou had no idea what to tell Megumi when they got to practice. He was sure he was going to get some form of punishment from Sanada, but he didn't know what kind of things would be asked of her. He saw her staring ahead at the courts, clearly nervous about her new job. But he figured that she was going to get through it. She wasn't mumbling to herself just yet, which he believed to be a good sign.

"Hey, I have to go over there now." He patted her head. She nodded and took a quiet breath.

"Are you gonna like… pass out?" he asked.

"Am I going to have to talk to everyone here?" she looked up at him with anxiety written all over her face. He gave a small laugh.

"I doubt it, we're trying to keep this thing secret still."

"Okay, if you say so." She said. He mentally sighed and wanted to make her feel a little more comfortable than this.

"Alright, I'll take off now." He said and walked away from her.

Niou took a look at everyone in the club. He made a list in his head of people he would want Megumi to avoid. Once she was better settled in with the team, he would start with the pranks and the tricks, but for today, at least, he felt it was best to leave her as alone as possible. Luckily, no one seemed to notice her. He looked back at her and she was being approached by Yukimura and Sanada. He hoped that Yukimura would keep the conversation calm and wouldn't scare her off. There was an awkward stare down between Sanada and Megumi. He knew that Sanada was just trying to see if she's capable of doing anything athletic, but he had no idea what she was thinking about him. For all he knew, she could be falling in love with him right now.

"Nope." He laughed at himself.

"Can I ask what you're laughing about?" Yagyuu came to ask.

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. But hey, she's here." He tilted his head to Megumi's direction. Yagyuu seemed surprised.

"Oh, good for her." He smiled.

"You think so? She was practically dying with shyness with just us five."

"Yeah, but I think she'll be fine. As long as Yukimura's here." Marui jumped in the conversation.

The three looked over and saw a slightly annoyed Sanada. Megumi wasn't standing still, and was rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, did he make her cry already?" Akaya asked from afar. Marui stuck his hand out against him.

"Don't join this conversation right now." He said and slightly shifted toward her direction.

"I don't believe she was crying. Maybe she got a little dust in her eyes." Yagyuu tried to assure.

"Nope. She's going to yawn soon." Niou realized. He tensed up, wondering how Sanada would take that.

"Are you sure? That's not a good idea." Marui said, hiding behind Niou.

The three stood silently and watched it happen. Megumi covered her mouth and looked away as a mild yawn was let out. And frame by frame, they saw Sanada's face turn from stern, to bewildered, to you-need-to-be-slapped-awake. His hands turned in to fists, and a deep breath was taken.

"How dare you yawn during an important discussion!" he yelled loud enough to possibly reach Shitenhouji.

The whole team stopped to see what was going on and saw Megumi with her chin held back. She blinked a few times and tilted her head. Everyone saw her move her lips, but didn't hear a word she said. If anything, it made Sanada angrier.

"Hey! All of you drop your rackets. Fifty laps, every one of you." Yukimura came in to the courts. With no hesitation, everyone did as they were told.

"Regulars run one hundred!" he added.

Marui and Niou groaned and started the run. They ran past Megumi once and saw that she wasn't crying or in distress. She looked calmer than she's ever been with Niou. And that slightly bothered him. It boggled his mind more than anything. More than half of the kids who join tennis drop out by the second day after they see how strict Sanada is on just posture. Which of course, never stopped Niou from appearing lazy every day. By his thirtieth lap, she was in the courts, sitting next to Yukimura on the bench. She was meeting Yanagi, who was handing her a few notebooks.

"Niou! Your pace is dropping!" Sanada yelled from behind him.

' _Since when was he running behind me?'_ he rolled his eyes and jogged slightly faster.

Akaya sped past him, as he had a rule that he can never run behind Sanada. He caught up and continued to run next to him. Akaya yelled and tried to out run him. This was always a great laugh for Niou, but it wasn't as fun this time. He kept wanting to make sure Megumi was doing okay. He reassured himself that she was with Yukimura, but that didn't make him feel that great either.

"Just one more lap, Niou-kun." Yagyuu passed by him.

"Who the hell even keeps count?" he mumbled.

"I do." Yanagi showed up for the final lap.

"Why do you guys always show up from nowhere?" he rolled his eyes and pushed himself to finish the run.

Luckily, he wasn't the last one and smoothly walked in to the courts to grab his water. Coming out from the club room with a stack of towels in her hands was Megumi with Yukimura, holding a few beside her.

"What's with Yukimura? He'd never carry towels for the team." Jackal said.

"He's most likely showing her where all of our belongings are." Yagyuu said.

Niou smirked and briskly walked over to Megumi.

"Hey manager~, I just ran a ton and I'm sweating like crazy. Can I have a towel?" he said slyly.

"There's a bunch right here, just grab one." She said, obviously annoyed.

"But you see, I'm about to practice my swinging. I have to rest my arm."

"You seriously have some nerve." She said and continued to walk with Yukimura.

"Hey, that's incredibly rude to your senpai. And a regular of the Rikkai tennis team!" he said.

"Masa. Shut up." She said and stuck her tongue out. He couldn't hold back a small laugh.

' _And I'm the one who has nerve?'_ he shook his head and stole a towel from the stack.

* * *

The sun was beginning to set, and the team members were out of energy. Everyone was waiting for Yukimura to give the call to end for the day. Niou found it funny that even by taking the laziest route, he still gets unbelievably tired. He couldn't even imagine how Akaya felt. Although it was pretty obvious as he was on the ground practically melting.

"Akaya, you can get up now." Yukimura said as he passed by.

"Can't…." he groaned and stayed on the ground.

"Okay, everyone! You're dismissed!" Yukimura shouted. Everyone was confused as they usually have team meetings after every practice. They slowly gathered their things, but stayed an extra ten minutes on the courts, just in case they were being tested. Yukimura let out a light sigh.

"So, are we meeting or anything today?" Marui asked.

"I figured I don't really have to tell you guys because we just end up talking anyway. Why waste the extra energy?"

"I don't have any more energy to use…" Akaya said from below.

"Learn to conserve it." Yanagi told him.

"Where's the new manager?" Jackal asked. Niou looked around and she was with Sanada by the club room.

"She's talking with Sanada. Their discussing manager responsibilities."

"He actually said that it's fine that she's here?" Marui said.

"Not really, but he'll adjust." Yukimura lightly smiled.

"Can we go change now? It's freaking hot." Niou mumbled.

"It's only April, it's not that hot." Jackal said. He rolled his eyes and headed for the club room. Megumi was obviously day dreaming, and Sanada had his arms crossed and looking the other way.

"Hey, Sanada, how do you like our new manager?" Niou stood in front of the two. Megumi looked over at him with dead eyes.

"She needs to learn what this sport is." He said very bluntly. They both looked at her and she shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"She doesn't know any rules, how is she supposed to manage anything?" he added.

"It'll be fine, Sanada. She'll get used to it." Yagyuu said from behind.

"Okada-san, I hope you had a good first day in the club." He smiled and walked in the room. Niou followed him.

"How long do you think she'll last?" Niou asked Yagyuu. He let out a sigh.

"I'm not too sure. I think she'll be okay, I'm rather more worried about Sanada-kun. He's going to be stressed out."

"He already has wrinkles, any more stress on him is going to be too much, don't you think?" Marui said as he walked in.

"I thought Sanada-fukubuchou was immune to anything. Has he ever gotten sick?" Akaya asked. They all paused for a moment and imagined a stone cold Sanada sneezing.

"Yeah, I doubt that'll ever happen." Niou said.

"But guys, did you see the way he yelled at Okada? I know it's just level one Sanada so it's not that bad, but on a new girl who's here because of Akaya's mistake? It was rough to watch." Marui said.

"Yeah, I felt pretty bad." Jackal agreed.

"What surprised me was how well she handled it. It was as if she'd experienced it before." Akaya said.

"It's possible. All team captains of this school are very strict and I've heard that they can be tough." Yagyuu said. Niou stayed silent and wondered if she's ever met Sanada, or if she's had a scary team captain before. He walked out of the room without saying anything to the team, and looked for Megumi. He had hoped she would stay where she was, but she had completely disappeared. He walked to the school gate but she wasn't there either. In fact, it was actually Yukimura standing.

"Oh, hey." Niou said to him. He kindly smiled back and approached him.

"I have to talk to you about something, Niou." He said in a serious tone. Most of his smile was gone, and he looked scary.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" he asked without worry.

"Out of everyone in the team, you're the closest to Okada-chan, right?" he said.

"She's not exactly the friendliest, but I guess I met her first." He shrugged.

"Okay. I don't want you to get any closer to her." Yukimura said sternly, looking at him deep in the eye. Niou didn't respond. He knew that by the way he was talking, he was being serious. Was it because Yukimura liked Megumi? He doubted that, as Yukimura wouldn't bother saying something like this.

"What?" he finally said.

"She doesn't remember, but we've met a few years ago. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say how we met, but we have. And she's not okay for this group."

"What the hell are you saying? She's just a girl, a fucking second year, and you're making her sound super dangerous." Niou scoffed and turned away. Yukimura followed and stepped in front of him.

"Say what you want. And I honestly don't have the right to tell you not to be friends with her, but I'm not going to let her find a new reason to kill herself." He said and walked away.

Niou stood there, and thought about what he just said. He wanted to know how they met, and why Yukimura knows she's tried to kill herself. And if they have met, why doesn't Megumi remember him? He shut his eyes and let out a deep sigh, as he was growing annoyed. He looked ahead and saw Megumi standing there. He approached her, and lightly kicked the back of her knee.

"Really? Was that necessary?" she rolled her eyes and started walking.

"I know you were waiting for me." He sneered and walked beside her, still wondering about the relationship between her and his captain.


	7. Chapter 7

**Yay! A new chapter at a decent time! Thank you for all that are reading this, and a huge thanks to those who added me on their favorites/follows, and another huge thanks to the people that reviewed! You guys are amazing 3**

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Megumi stayed her usual self and kept quiet on the way home. There were a few exchanges between Niou and her, but she simply lost the energy to keep up with any conversation. He seemed to be more on the quieter side too, but she had assumed he was just tired from practice. His hair was sticking out of places, slouched heavier than earlier in the day, and spots of sweat cleaned out some dirt on his face. She started to daze out and tried to remember what Sanada had been yelling at her about. There was so much, and it had been a couple years since she was last yelled at like this. It was refreshing, but since she had no interest in what he was saying, she could barely take any information in. And Yukimura. She still couldn't remember who he was, or where she had seen him before. The rest of the team members' names were a lost cause to her at this point.

"Hey, you're gonna trip if you don't look where you're going." He said to her.

"What?" She woke up and refreshed her eyes.

"You've just been looking lost and confused so I figured you weren't paying attention to your surroundings."

"It's never been a problem before."

"Well, you never know when a kidnapper has its eyes on you. Or me." He stretched his back.

"Oh, kidnap me and take me to the house across from mine? What a crime." She scoffed. She saw him roll his eyes, and was confused about why he didn't retort. Brushing it off, they continued quietly until they reached home. She couldn't tell if there was something on his mind, or if he just didn't feel like talking. A way to ask wouldn't form in her head. She had forgotten how to simply take interest in anyone else's life.

' _Selfish much?'_ she asked herself. A small sigh let out as they reached their homes. She turned to enter hers, but he stepped in front of her.

"Yes?" she asked, not knowing what he was up to. His eyes turned up, his response came out late.

"Oh, I'm not sure. I just wanted to see your face when you're not freaked out for once."

"What?" she wasn't sure what he was aiming for.

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you tomorrow." He pat her head and walked to his home. She turned her head in confusion.

"And I know I'm hot, but it'd be nice if you'd stop staring." He said loudly, without even turning to look at her.

"Be careful, Megumi," he pointed to the back of his head, "I've got eyes everywhere."

She was speechless, just realizing she'd just been staring at him the whole way home. Her face flushed red and she rushed inside. No one was home, so she went straight to her room. She had hoped Niou didn't think she didn't want to talk to him. While it hurt to admit, she had no idea about anything regarding tennis. She was the least qualified person to manage anything for that team. She pulled out her phone and searched "basic tennis rules". All search results were too long for her to read. She lay down and browsed her phone for a while longer. Her brothers had come home one by one, but she couldn't find a will to leave her bed and have a conversation. A knock came to her door and she still couldn't find it.

"Hey-! Are you alive?" one of them joked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said loud enough for him to hear. He continued to knock obnoxiously, meaning she had to prove it. She opened the door to a sneering Satoshi.

"I'm fine." She repeated and tried to close the door.

"Come eat with us, dad's out for a few days this week." He said nicely while strongly gripping the door.

"I'm tired and not hungry." Which happened to be true this time.

"I don't care. I don't want you to die so," he started, but Megumi cut him off by walking past him before he finished.

"Woah it only took that much? What happened today?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Nothing, I just want you to stop talking to me." She shrugged them off. In the living room was everyone else sitting in front of the television watching baseball. Realizing watching that wouldn't help, Megumi took a seat at the table and took her phone out again. Kenichi walked over and sat in front of her.

"Hiroki should be coming by sometime this month." He said softly. Her face lifted up, making her excited. Being the oldest one of the five of them, he was her secret favorite, and hadn't seen him in half a year.

"That's exciting." She kept a small smile to herself.

"Only because he actually likes you. He's just going to yell at me when he sees me." Hiroshi, the youngest of the brothers said. Megumi sighed and wished it wasn't true.

"Doesn't matter. Megumi, can we talk for a second?" Kenichi asked. She shut her eyes, knowing what was coming. Talking about anything that had to do with her health was the last thing she wanted to do.

"It's about that boy, from the Niou family across the street." He said calmly. Her head shot up in surprise.

"What about him?" she asked immediately. The house fell silent except the commentary of the game. The response was too unexpected and oddly cheerful to them. Satoshi and Hiroshi stood up and surrounded Megumi's seat. She made eye contact with each of them, and they were all prepared with interrogation questions.

"How'd you meet him?"

"How long have you two been friends?"

"Do you guys walk home together now?"

"Is he following you?"

"Why him? He's lanky."

She couldn't tell which question came from who, or even the answer to most of them. She waited for them to yell everything out before she tried to say anything. She realized the doorbell had rung twice.

"Hey, I'm gonna get that." She said and tried to stand up.

"I'll do it!" Kenichi shouted and ran to the door. Megumi had some hope that it was Hiroki and he came earlier as a surprise.

"YOU!" she heard Keichi yell. She leaned to take a look at the door and it turned out to be none other than Masa. The two made eye contact and he gave a small wave. He was completely changed out of his tennis clothes, and was just wearing sweats and a simple long sleeve.

"Hey, sorry to bother you, but could I see Megumi for a bit?" he asked nonchalantly. Megumi saw smoke coming out of Kenichi's head as he was boiling with frustration.

"You're using her name without any honorifics? And you look sloppy as hell." he gritted through his teeth.

"If you have a problem with dropping those too early, you'll have to have that conversation with her first. She just calls me Masa and I'm a year above her. And as for the clothes, I'm not sure what I can say other than the fact that I'm just feeling a little lazy." He shrugged.

Megumi wished she could deny that she called him Masa since her father actually is strict about honorifics, but figured that conversation would come at another time.

"Oh, and to answer your questions from earlier," Niou started and cleared his throat, "we met on the roof of the school since she seemed to be having a bad day. I'm assuming you know what that means when it comes to Megumi. Oh, sorry, Megumi- _san_ , and it was just two days ago that we met so about a day and a half that we'd been friends; in my opinion, probably not hers. We live across the street from each other and now that she's kind of becoming friends with my friends on the tennis team, it's not so weird that we walk home together. That answers the question of if I'm following her or not. And last but not least, she hasn't exactly 'chosen' me for anything, so me being lanky isn't that much of a problem."

The all the boys were silent as they took in everything he said and couldn't decide if they should be angry or not. Niou was standing with his hands in his pockets simply waiting for some kind of response. Megumi slowly stood up from her seat and walked to the door to meet him. She softly put her hand on Kenichi's.

"I'm going to let him in, okay? I'm fine." She said reassuringly, and he stepped away from the door. The three brothers grouped up and sat on the couch together, still not saying anything. Niou leaned closer to Megumi, making sure no one was watching them.

"So, is it okay to come in for a bit?" he whispered. Megumi nodded and closed the door behind him. Not knowing what room to head to, she led him to the kitchen which was a good enough distance for some privacy without letting him in her room. They both took a seat, and Megumi continuously kept an eye on her brothers. She turned her eyes to Niou who was looking in her direction as well.

"So, why are you here?" she asked suddenly, keeping her voice down.

"We didn't talk much on our way home today and I got bored." He plainly said. Megumi tilted her head and squinted her eyes.

"Why come here though? Don't you have homework or anything?"

"Homework can always be done before I go to sleep, so no need to worry about that right now. And I'm pretty tired of my siblings right now, so I thought I'd come hang out with you." He gave an honest smile. Megumi still couldn't comprehend it. She could feel the heat in her face that had been burning ever since he appeared by the door. There had to be a catch for this interaction, and she couldn't figure it out.

"Hey, I've got a question. Why are you still in your uniform?" he interrupted her thoughts.

"Hm?" she looked down at her clothes. She sighed as she didn't want to give the true answer.

"Not sure, I'm just feeling lazy too I guess. You look cleaner than earlier." She threw a new subject at him. He didn't seem to be thrown off by her answer and kept up with the conversation.

"Yeah, I showered and everything so all that tennis sweat is gone. Oh, that reminds me. I know tomorrow's Saturday, but we still have practice. Sunday too. You don't have to come, but it'd be cool if you do."

"It's more surprising when a Rikkai team doesn't practice weekends." She rolled her eyes.

"No, it's fucked up and it should be illegal." He argued. Megumi shrugged and didn't bother to argue back. She thought about the weekend practice and wondered if there would be any benefit for her going.

"But like I said, you don't have to if you don't want to. But weekends can be fun since Akaya gets yelled at a lot and you can watch Sanada's vein be close to popping."

"I saw that enough today and it was toward me. I feel like it'd be better for you guys that I just don't show up."

"Yeah you really don't know a thing about tennis." He laughed, and Megumi broke eye contact.

"But today was fun. Bunta and Yagyuu thought so too." He poked her shoulder. She looked at his finger and down her own arm to make sure nothing was visible.

"Okay, which one is pink hair again?" she asked and pulled her arm away.

"Pink is Yagyuu." He smiled.

"Oh okay." She said, unsure if he was telling the truth or not. She started noticing that her brothers had started to turn their heads every few seconds to watch them. Niou turned to look back at them, and back to Megumi.

"Are they okay?" he asked, looking honestly confused. Megumi wasn't sure how to properly answer since she didn't know if they were either. They've never blown up at her like this or even acted this strange about anything.

"Do you want to come over to my house? It might be less weird."

"No!" the three exclaimed. Megumi and Niou drew their head back in surprise.

"Okay, cool, maybe another time then." He rolled his eyes. Megumi felt bad that he was repeatedly getting yelled at, and wished her brothers would stop.

"Hey, I hate to be a dick, but are they why you don't have friends?" he said. Her eyes grew large in embarrassment and surprise at the question. It was something she never thought of, and she began to grow angry.

"What did you just ask me?" she said quietly, not wanting to look at him.

"I don't know-,"

"Exactly, you don't know anything about me. So stop asking these personal things as if we're friends. Just stop." She scoffed.

"Yeah, only two days of knowing her?" Kenichi stood up and walked toward her. Megumi got up herself and stood in front of him.

"You, Hiroshi and Satoshi. Get out. I don't want you around me right now." She looked at him dead in the eye.

"Why? I'm trying to help you." He said and tried to hug her. She pushed him away and took a deep breath.

"Just please. Leave me alone right now." She said. Satoshi pulled Kenichi away, and the three went to their rooms. She held her head, not knowing why she suddenly blew up. Pacing around to try to calm down, she bumped in to Niou, who she had somehow forgotten was there. She lifted her head to look at him, and hung it immediately after. She didn't want him to see her cry today, so she held her head down.

"Hey, I'm sorry I said that. I uh, I didn't know that would happen." He said quietly. She shook her head, feeling horrible for what had just happened.

"Um, it's… it's okay." She said and held her tears in. After blinking a couple times to make sure nothing fell out, she held her head back up. He was smiling softly and placed his hand on her hair.

"I'll leave now, I know you're going to tell me that you need to be alone too."

"Yeah. Sorry my brothers were kind of crazy though. It's probably the reason why I don't have any _guy_ friends." She said.

"Well now you've got at least six, so they'll have to get used to it." He said excitedly. He pulled his phone out and handed it to her.

"Just put your number in so that next time, I can give you a heads up of when I'm coming over, and so I can annoy you even if I'm not with you."

Megumi stared at the phone for too long. After taking it in her own hand, she pulled her own phone out. It had been years since she had been asked for her phone number, so she actually forgot what it was.

"How many prank calls from you should I expect?" she asked.

"Hmm… I'm thinking two a week for now." He said. Megumi sighed, and had mixed feelings of the moment. She had just assumed that it was for emergency or tennis reasons that he needed the number, in order to not grow attached.

"Anyway, I'll get going. Like I said, you don't have to come tomorrow, but you should. It'll be fun, and it'll keep you from dying." He started patting her hair.

"Oh shut up and go home." She ducked away. He laughed as he walked to the door.

"I'll miss you~." He said, and she closed the door on him to get him out. She used the back of her hands to cool her face down, and took deep breaths. She knew for sure that was a pure joke.

She looked around the house and realized her brothers were still in their rooms. She was still too jittery from before to go apologize to them, so she went to her room. Her phone buzzed out of nowhere, causing her to fling out of her hands in surprise. It landed on the floor, and she crouched down to see what the notification was for. It was a message from an unknown number. She turned the phone to silent, since she had work to do and she knew how long it would take.

The cabinet with her night clothes had been decorated with her drawings of when she was younger than seven. She took a look at each one of herself, wondering where her always smiling self went. With a sigh, she pulled out a few clothes, and lay them on her bed. She closed the curtains and made sure the door was locked. She drew a breath and pulled her shirt and skirt off. Before reaching for the clothes to switch in to, she turned to look at herself in just underwear. Red, tan, white, and blue lines ran all throughout her arms, belly, ribs and thighs. She nicked at a few scabs and burn marks, as some happened to only be a few days old. She turned to look at her back that was bare, and reminded herself of what her skin originally looked like. Then she noticed the small bulges by the band of her underwear and bra and saw the marks of her trying to cut them off. She tugged at them and wondered why they never disappeared. She looked at her pale face, wishing her own reflection would stop making her cry, but rather explain why she always does. She bit her lip and finally turned away to put her clothes on.

* * *

After lying in bed in silence for a while, she remembered that there was a message that came for her. She grabbed her phone from the floor and saw that she had new messages from five new numbers.

"Hey! It's Marui Bunta! Niou gave me your phone number, so here's mine! Talk to me any time!"

"Hello, I'm Yagyuu Hiroshi, Niou-kun's friend and teammate. He happened to give me your phone number and I thought you should know that it was given to me by him. If you ever need anything, never hesitate to ask. –Yagyuu."

"Hey, it's Jackal. Do you know Niou's passing your number around to us? Just thought you might want to know… good luck."

"Niou gave me your number. Do you understand the third problem on the math homework? Oh, this is Kirihara btw."

Megumi was overwhelmed at the count of people messaging her. She wasn't sure if it was too late to reply so she left the messages alone. After scrolling through each one again, there was one she realized she hadn't opened.

"It's kind of rude for you to slam the door in my face, but I guess I deserve that much for today. Stay alive~. –Niou." She read that message over and over, growing warm.

' _It wasn't just for tennis.'_ She thought and a small smile grew on her face.


	8. Chapter 8

**YOU GUYS I'M IN JAPAN! It's super cool, and I haven't had time to go do any anime related stuff but I'm hoping to find a lot of Prince of Tennis stuff! I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

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Niou continuously looked around all morning, wondering if Megumi was actually going to show up at all. Two hours had passed since practice started, and he never got a text back from the previous night. He grew worried about her, wondering if the incident of him showing up randomly startled her too much. He threw a few swings to try to shake off the feeling, but it still crawled inside him.

"Hey, you're super out of it today, are you okay?" Marui came with a bottle of water. Niou let out a sigh and accepted it.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about if Megumi is going to come at all."

"Oh right. You know, I messaged her last night after you told all of us to, and she never replied to me. Are you sure you gave me the right number?"

"I haven't received one either." Yagyuu said.

"I'm pretty sure I did." He sighed again. After a quick scan of making sure the captains weren't looking, he pulled out his phone to check if she had messaged him. There were plenty from his older sister, but none from Megumi.

"Well, we still have another five hours here, she might show up later." Marui tried to tell him. Niou gave a small laugh.

"Maybe, but I doubt it."

* * *

Practice came to a close, and Megumi never showed, or gave a reply. Niou faked being okay about it, but his worries grew. He had started wondering if he had already screwed up and if she was ever going to face him again. He packed his things and tried leaving the school without any interruptions, but Marui and Jackal came around him.

"Hey, let's go hang out, I'm hungry." Marui said.

"Right now? Aren't you tired?" Niou grumbled.

"Yeah, that's why I'm saying we should go get food. It's not even that far~."

"Alright." Niou sighed, turning the sound on his phone on so he would know if Megumi would message him at all.

The three of them sat in the middle of the shopping mall, Marui eating half of the food court and Niou and Jackal sipping on a smoothie. Constantly looking at his phone, Niou wasn't paying any attention to what the other two were saying.

"Hey, are you sure you're good? I get that you're tired but you're not even plotting pranks on strangers. Or listening. HEYYYYY!" Marui yelled in his ear, making him jump and drop his phone. He clicked his tongue and picked it up.

"How do you have so much energy to yell after practice? That's the real question." He said and unlocked his phone again.

"You didn't answer mine though. And since when are you a phone addict?" Marui asked and tried looking at it. Niou clicked the button, making it go dark and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not. But hey, I'm just on the really tired side today so I'm gonna head home. See you tomorrow." He faked a yawn and walked away.

"Tell Megumi-chan to answer my message! She hasn't replied in over two hours!" Marui yelled from afar. He threw him a thumbs up, before realizing what he had just said.

' _Two hours? She's been talking to him?'_ he thought and looked at his phone again to see if he had missed a message.

He hadn't, making him wonder what made her talk to Marui but not him. He lifted his head to try to forget it, but then he saw the girl that was making him go crazy all along. She was walking out of a hospital clinic, rubbing her head. Her shoulders were steadily moving up and down, meaning she was taking deep breaths. His worries grew worse, wondering if she was injured, or if she was there because of him. The possibility of her just being sick crossed his mind, but only once. He desperately wanted to know but he didn't know how he could ask her. His pace picked up, wanting to discreetly catch up to her. To his surprise, she turned and their eyes met. There was a distance, but he saw her surprised expression. He gave a small smile and walked up to her.

"Hey Megumi." He said softly and mindlessly wrapped his arms around her.

Her body was still, but he didn't care. His only concern was that she was okay. A surprise came to him again, which was a single arm wrapping around his waist and giving a light pull. Her head dipped in his chest, and she gave a deep sigh. Without a moment's notice, his shirt was getting wet and light sniffles were heard. He realized she wasn't okay at all. One of his hands went to her head and he pet her naturally. Neither of them said a word, and he didn't dare break the silence.

"Sorry." She mumbled and started to pull away. Niou gave her some space, but kept an arm wrapped around her.

"You're okay, I'm not mad." He assured her.

He kept trying to make eye contact, but she wouldn't let him. He figured there were too many thoughts in her head, making it difficult for her to focus on anything. Finally releasing her, he took a step back and gave her an opportunity to breathe. She rubbed her eyes and slouched her shoulders, finally looking more relaxed. Her eyes turned to him and he softly smiled.

"Looking good, Megu." He said, causing a small laugh from her.

"Thanks." She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"But do you want to go somewhere else? You look like you need to sit down for a bit." He said.

She nodded, and Niou led the walk to a nearby park. He stopped in front of a jungle gym and motioned for it silently.

"You're serious?" she asked.

"Yeah, let's go." He answered and started climbing.

He heard her sigh, but the sound of her shoes hitting the bars followed. He looked down to make sure she was getting up okay, since it was a relatively high gym. She turned out to do just fine, since she was able to sit at the top next to him right after he sat down himself. Their feet dangled next to each other, feeling a cool breeze. He looked over at her, and realized this was the first time he'd ever seen her in regular street clothes. Although he had only known her a couple days, it was still a sight. His eyes went to her slightly exposed wrists. He remembered the previous day, when he had teased her by pulling her close, and he had felt the lines. This time, he saw them, but he didn't know what to say.

"Do you want to see them?" He heard her say quietly.

He shifted his eyes to hers, and saw her discomfort.

"I don't need to. Sorry for staring at them." He scratched his head.

"Don't be. It's my fault for not hiding them well." She sighed and tried to pull the sleeve.

He shook his head and lightly laughed at her.

"I was going to tell you to not be sorry, but I don't want to start that cycle. But can I ask something?"

"Is your question about why I was in the clinic?" she asked.

' _One of them is.´_ he thought, but nodded. She released a deep breath and lifted her head to face the sky.

"Intense therapy session today."

"Oh." He said out loud.

She slowly nodded, and he immediately knew that it was about him.

"You can stop me whenever, okay?" he blurted. Her head tilted, and she looked confused.

"I mean," he sighed, "I'm sorry I pestered you so much about being your best friend, and messing with you so much, and just for bothering you. But I'll stop annoying you and leave you alone."

He saw her expression fall hard and tears welled up in her eyes. She buried her face in her hands, and started tilting forward.

"Woah," he said and pulled her back, "be careful, you'll fall off this thing."

"Masa." She said, and tried to take a deep breath. He rubbed his hand on her back and tried to soothe her.

"It's okay Megumi."

"No it isn't!" she shouted.

"What?"

"It's not okay that I'm treating you like this! All you're doing is being nice to me, but all I can think of is the day that you'll leave me behind, and go back to your real friends." She wiped her face but tears kept falling.

"I don't know why I keep trying to push you away when you're the first person to even see me at school in three years. And now, I've made you feel so bad that you're apologizing about being a friend to me. I desperately need a friend, but I sure as hell don't deserve a person as nice as you." She shook her head.

Niou stared at her. He didn't know what to say, or what to do. The words she was spilling were ridiculous to him, as he genuinely never thought she was treating him badly. The way she talked to him from day one made it clear she hasn't talked to a new person in so long. He knew that she was scared, and that she was just trying to protect herself. And now, he knew that not only did she deserve the best, but she needed to learn to trust again.

"Megumi, look at me." He said and lifted her chin with his hand. The tears were growing hard to bear, but he locked eyes with her.

"Listen. You don't need to believe me, but I'm not going to leave you. You just admitted that you need a friend, and I'm exactly that, okay?" he smiled and wiped a tear off her face.

"Don't say I'm an acquaintance or someone that's like a friend. I, Niou Masaharu, one of the top tennis players in the mother fucking country is someone that you get to hang out with and talk to any time you want. About anything." He moved his hand to her head and pet her hair.

"And who knows, I might become your boyfriend at some point." He joked. She let out a small laugh, along with a slight blush in her cheeks, making him feel like a winner.

"But why would you want to talk to me anyway? I'm such a boring person or a crazy mess, it'll distract you so much from everything." She sighed and looked away from him.

"Why do you hate yourself so much?" he asked, and realized he had said that out loud. He saw her bite her lip and hang her head again.

"Sorry. You don't have to answer that." Niou immediately said and pat her back.

"I don't want to go that far in to it, but I'm not the only one who feels that way." She shrugged.

Niou gave a confused expression and wanted to ask what she meant. Before he did, he looked at her already stressed, and decided that conversation would be for another time.

"Oh, and uh, I'm sorry for not messaging you back at all." She said, looking away from him.

Her phone was out and there were message notifications from Marui, whose contact name was "Pink Hair". Niou laughed at it, but also grew curious of what they were talking about.

"Don't worry about it. What are you and Bunta talking about?" he decided to ask. She was lightly blushing and refusing to look at him.

"That you were apparently upset that I didn't go to your practice today…" she said quietly.

His face grew warm and he swore to himself that he was going to prank him back ridiculously hard. For once, he was glad that Megumi wasn't looking at him since he couldn't imagine how red his face actually was. He quickly shook off the feeling and put a fake smile on.

"Yeah, I was just hoping that you didn't forget." He lied.

She turned her head and looked directly at him. Her tears had dried, but her eyes were still red. He wished he could hug her again, but she spoke before he could do anything.

"That's a lie." She scoffed.

"What?"

"I know a lie when I hear one." She smirked, and turned away again.

Niou needed a moment to himself.

' _What? She could tell that wasn't true?'_ he thought.

Although it was a pretty simple lie, he knew how natural it sounded. There was so much about Megumi that he still hadn't figured out, but something that he had learned, was that she was a mystery. She quietly laughed.

"You don't need to explain yourself or anything. I just think it's best you know that it's not worth trying to trick me like that." She rested her chin on her hand. Niou blinked and didn't know how to react anymore. Naturally, laughter spilled from him and he swung his arm around her.

"Oh, Megumi. I'm so glad we're friends." He said and pat her hair. He noticed she tensed up, but he truly didn't care.

"And I know you know that I'm not lying~." He sneered and let her go. She lightly sighed and turned away from him.

"Hey, you have to say something back. You agreed that we're friends now so you have to be nice to me." He poked her cheek.

"How about you stop touching me." She said and swiped his hand away. He grabbed hers before she could set it down, and put it to his face.

"Here, compliment my skin." He said and rubbed her hand up and down.

"Masa, that's gross, you just had practice." She tried to pull her hand back.

His grip was still pretty strong, causing her to almost fall back. Quickly, she held on to a bar, stopping the motion. She released a sigh of relief and held on tightly.

"Hey, don't die on me once we're official friends." He said.

"Oh, I thought you said you had wings and that you would fly to save me." She rolled her eyes. Before he could respond, she started climbing down.

"What, we're going home now?" he groaned.

"Yeah, we both have practice tomorrow, right?" she looked up at him, with the smallest smile. He leaned forward and sent a smile back.

"We sure do, miss manager~." He said and started to climb down.

* * *

The two reached home in peace, and it was the first walk he had with her where she was smiling with only the slightest hesitation. He was happy her day was lightening up, and that she seemed to be okay now. But at the same time, there was a part of him that was worried about if she really was. Although he didn't mention it before, he's just as good at picking out liars, and he knew she was still hiding a lot inside.

"Hey, are you feeling better now?" he asked once they reached their homes.

"I never know if I am." She said bluntly. He let out a light laugh and shook his head.

"Well, you look like you are at least."

"Thanks. And, uh, sorry for being a mess again." She mumbled and started for her door.

"It's okay~, text me when you get home safe~." He said and turned away.

He knew she was rolling her eyes already, but he was happy with how the day was ending. Without a thought, he pulled out his phone as he entered his house, and finally read all the messages his sister had sent him.

"We're leaving for dinner without you." He read the last message out loud.

It turned out that the family had some special event that he couldn't remember, and he had missed the occasion entirely. He shrugged and looked around for food, but after seeing that his younger brother had eaten majority of the fridge, he was stuck snacking on an apple for the time being. Walking up to his room, he took his shirt off, and opened the window. He saw Megumi's house and a set of curtains closed rapidly, making him wonder if it was her room. After a quick laugh, he decided a fun phone call wouldn't hurt. After ringing three times, she picked up.

"Hello?" she said, sounding clearly confused.

"Hey, what's up?"

"You literally saw me just walk in my house." She scoffed.

"Yeah, but it's been, what, seven or so minutes? Where are you?" he said, sitting on his window sill.

"In my room. What about you?"

"Oh, you're wondering about me? That's new~." He heard her sigh in annoyance.

"Look out your window and try to find me."

He stared at her house and waited for her to look out. He heard her mumbling through the phone and he just smiled. A window opened, and she stuck her head out, and made eye contact.

"Hey~~." He said loud enough for her to hear across the street. She gave a small wave, and immediately looked down.

"What, can't handle seeing me without a shirt?" he smirked. She turned around and hung up on him.

"Hey, you left your window open!" he shouted.

"Oh my god, go shower or something!" she yelled back at him, and slammed her windows. He laughed out loud, and did as he was told.

As he stood in the shower, he started wondering what else her therapy session included. It had been a whirlwind of a day, and he was having trouble grasping all of it. And his question of why she hated herself still stuck to the side of his brain. There had to be something that happened that he wanted to learn about her. He stepped out, and grabbed a razor for his face. Although there wasn't much to shave, he still had the need to keep his face clean. After a few strokes, he nicked his chin and started to bleed.

"Damn." He cursed and grabbed a piece of toilet paper to stop the bleeding.

' _She does this on purpose?'_ he thought, and pulled the paper off. Seeing it was just a light scratch, he didn't bother putting a band aid on. Once he was fully dressed, he went back to his room to browse his phone. Surprisingly, there was a message from Megumi.

" **Hey, when does practice start tomorrow?** " it read.

A wide smile grew on his face, as he knew for sure she would be there this time. He set his phone down, and decided not to reply for at least ten minutes, just as a small form of payback. He knew she wouldn't send another message after, but this was enough for him.

" **From 8 AM~ I'll be waiting at your door in the morning.** " He typed. Laying down on his bed and staring at the phone to see if she would respond, thoughts for the next day grew. But exhaustion from the day started to crawl in and he could barely keep his eyes open. Quickly setting an alarm, he locked his phone, and fell asleep.

* * *

 **Yay to a chapter finally being done! Thank you to all the new followers and the reviewers and for overall reading all of this! 3**


	9. Chapter 9

**And I am back in the US of A! I'm still feeling a little bittersweet, and I wish so much that I was still in Japan, but what can I do?**

 ***Disclaimer: This may be slightly triggering to those who have stayed in mental hospitals, or any hospital.**

* * *

"Good morning Megumi-chan! Didn't think you would show up today." Marui jumped in front of her.

She was quite surprised herself. Being a no-show was an option she almost took again, but Niou had kept his promise to wait for her. In sweats and a long sleeve, she stood next to the group of boys she was slowly growing used to. She felt Sanada's stare from a distance, but she chose to ignore it for the time being.

"Good morning everyone. Is it just Akaya missing again?" Yukimura came to ask. They all nodded, and mumbled about how nothing is new.

"Oh, you made it today. Great." He said with a smile. Megumi slightly dropped her head.

"I'm uh, I'm sorry for not coming yesterday." She said.

"Well I'm glad you acknowledge your wrongdoing. If you do that again, I'm going to have Sanada take care of it." He said sweetly. She gulped, starting to grow scared of him.

"It's fine," Niou said as he placed his hands on her shoulders, "I'll walk her here each time."

"That's great." Yukimura said.

Megumi looked at the two staring at each other. There was some sort of tension between them that was felt by everyone, but no one could pinpoint why. Before anyone was killed off by the awkward silence, Yanagi came in the small huddle.

"Okada-san, I need to ask you a few things, do you have a moment?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." She replied calmly and slowly came out of Niou's grasp.

He led them slightly far away from the group and sat at a nearby bench.

"Um, are they always like that?"

"No, they just have different concerns for you." He said simply.

"But I barely know Yukimura-san."

"You've met him before. You probably just blocked it out."

Megumi stared at him, not having a single clue of what he was talking about. There was no way that she had actually met him before all of this. Yanagi was expressionless and fiddled through one of his notebooks. After sorting through three or four, he handed them all to her.

"Okay, these will explain basic rules, moves, names to remember, profiles of each player, and anything you need to know about being in the tennis team." He explained.

"All of this is necessary to be a manager?" she asked, lightly skimming through.

"You need more, but I'm thinking of giving these to you gradually to not overwhelm you."

"What more will I even need?" she mumbled. She heard him laugh quietly.

"You've been in a Rikkai team before, you should know."

Megumi tensed up as he finished his sentence. The world was suddenly spinning, and she had to blink a couple times to see straight. Yanagi was expressionless again and was reading through his own notes. She was too scared to ask how he knew or how much he knew, but she had to make sure no one else did.

"You can't-,"

"I won't tell anyone. And no one else knows, except Yukimura." He said.

"What? Why?" she asked, still incredibly confused by everything.

"You can ask him. I'm sure he won't mind."

' _That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.'_ She thought.

"You might not think it's a good idea, but it'll help clear up all your confusions." He said and walked away.

She stared at him, wondering how he was reading her mind. It was close to making her angry, but the curiosity of how he knew everything was more distracting. She thought that there was no way he could know anything about her since they had just met, and, admittedly, she had forgotten who he was. The thought of Yukimura passed by her, making her try to dig in to her past for a little bit. With her chin resting on her hands, she tried to dig deep, but her mind stopped her from going too far.

"Hey, are you okay?" someone asked. Megumi snapped out of her thoughts and looked up.

"Oh, s-sorry." She said and immediately stood up, seeing it was Yukimura.

"Don't be, you weren't doing anything wrong." He said and smiled. This time seemed more genuine than earlier.

"But could you get us some towels? We're going to start running soon."

She nodded and headed to the club room. She wanted to know so badly how he knew her, but nothing was coming up. There was no way she would have been able to forget a person with hair that blue, or an aura as strong as his.

' _He doesn't dance does he? No, his body type doesn't fit dancer at all. Maybe he's seen me on stage? But I haven't done that in two years. Who the hell is this guy?'_ she continually thought.

"Hey, move Okada!" she heard someone yell, and jumped to her left right after.

She turned and saw Kirihara running for his life right past her, barging in to the club room. She quickened her pace see if he fell, but once she reached the door, he was running again. After watching him get a quick scolding from Sanada, she entered the club room herself for the towels.

Kirihara's fall had caused quite a mess in the room. Most of the chairs were on the floor, tennis balls were all over the place, and he left his locker wide open. She decided to take a quick look at what was in there, and it was as if three storms had taken place in it. There wasn't anything interesting, but it looked like he had thrown in a photo album of some sort before he ran off. She shrugged it off as she forgot that she had come in for towels. As her eyes directed toward the pile, she also noticed that Niou's locker was left slightly open. Her curiosity grew, and she wanted to look, but she knew it was a bad idea and a rude thing to do. She took the towels and left the room with too many lingering thoughts.

She dropped them by the bench, just in time as they had finished their laps. Yukimura was standing with his arms crossed and waiting for the freshman to finish up. She stared at him without even thinking it would come off as weird or creepy, and tried her hardest to jog her memory. It was starting to bother her so much that she was considering actually asking him.

"Is there something on my face?" he suddenly asked, causing her to jump.

"Huh? Oh, sorry no." she said and looked away from him.

"Is everything okay? You looked really… how should I say it, hmm… lost?" he approached her.

Megumi's heart was pounding with anxiety of whether she should ask or not. It almost came out, but she couldn't get herself to say it completely.

"I'm okay, thank you." She said quietly.

"Alright. I actually have a new favor to ask you."

"Oh, what is it?"

"I'm sure you saw, but since Akaya has a bad habit of not only being late, but ruining the club room when he is, I need the room tidied up. Usually we have a first year do it, but I'd like to keep them focused on practice. Do you mind cleaning for a little bit?"

Before she could even answer, he had walked away as though she had already agreed to it. Realizing she actually really didn't have a choice, she headed back to the Kirihara-struck room.

Looking at it again after not seeing it for a couple minutes made the room look worse. She didn't know where to start. She scanned the room and looked for the biggest pieces to pick up and reorganize. Niou's locker came to her sight again. Shaking her head, she went to grab the chairs and benches that had toppled over. A gust of dust flew in the air, showing that the room hadn't properly been cleaned in a very long time. Even their trophies and plaques had been collecting dust. She figured that could be a project of her own at some point. And she made a point to bring some air freshener for next time.

* * *

After a good hour, she was able to see the entire floor for the first time. She hoped that the way she organized things didn't get in the way or made things harder to find, but it was much cleaner than before. It had already turned 10:30 but it didn't sound like the boys were going to have a break anytime soon. She stared at Niou's locker for too long, and her feet brought her to it without thinking. Very slowly, she creaked it open, and it didn't seem like there was anything in there. She opened it all the way, and confetti flew in her face and a loud air horn blew loud enough for her brothers at home to hear. She raised her arms in fear, and jumped back, completely surprised. Looking around, there was nothing else coming, but in the locker was a sign that read, "Have fun cleaning again".

Megumi was growing furious at the prank but also at herself for believing that his locker would be safe to look in. She told herself she should've known better, and that even if there wasn't a prank, looking in someone's locker without permission is wrong, and sort of creepy. Obviously a horn that loud had to attract some people to see what was happening, but of course, the first walk in the room was Niou. He was snickering proudly at the outcome.

"I didn't think you'd actually look in someone's locker like that." He said as he pat her hair.

"Hey, you're messing it up." She ducked.

"I'm getting the confetti off of you. What were you looking for anyway?"

She didn't answer as Yukimura and Yanagi came in. They observed the mess calmly, because to them, it was just Niou being Niou.

"Well, Niou, you know the drill." Yukimura said and passed him the broom.

"Fine~. Hey Megu, there's another broom back there." He said and started sweeping.

Megumi went to find it, but Yukimura placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Okada's going to help out in the courts now. You're cleaning this up yourself." He said.

"What?" he furrowed his brows, looking slightly pissed.

"This is your mess, technically." Yanagi said.

"I don't mind cleaning it. I was the one who opened his locker without permission." Megumi said, just realizing she had just defended Niou.

"I appreciate the honesty, Megumi-chan, but these pranks by him are getting out of hand. And I think we actually could use your help in the courts." Yukimura said.

' _Did he just call me Megumi-chan?'_ she thought, as it jolted something inside her.

There was a faint memory of that voice saying her name, but it was still itching her brain. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, she looked over at Niou, who had surprisingly a plain face as he was sweeping. But the energy in the room had definitely flipped and it was darker than ever.

"Let's go." Yanagi said and walked out.

Megumi was almost forced out as Yukimura still had his hands on her shoulders. She looked behind her to just look at Niou for reassurance, but he wasn't looking up. He was just calmly putting the confetti away in a bag.

"I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm sure it was startling." Yukmura said as he let go of her.

"I should really be the one apologizing, I wasn't trying to take anything of his." She tried to explain herself.

"I know," he said while chuckling, "I'm sure you were just wondering his secrets were."

Megumi tilted her head, wondering if that actually was the reason. He continued to talk, but she couldn't focus on what he was saying.

"Yukimura-san, I'm sorry to interrupt, but what's your name again?" she asked without looking at him.

"Hm? You can't remember?" he smiled.

"It's Seiichi."

"Seiichi… thank you. Sorry." She mumbled.

"Don't be, and don't hesitate to call me that either." He said.

She knew she wouldn't be able to. He was too intimidating and borderline scary to call him such a friendly name.

"For now, you can just wait here. Maybe you could look over some of the notes that Yanagi gave you." He said and left her by the bench.

She sat but didn't open the notebooks. She just stared in to space, and tried to remember exactly how Yukimura sounded when he said her name. She started mumbling his name and trying to think back to even middle school times, which started to put her in a bad place mentally. She took a deep breath and decided to take a break from her own mystery.

The team was taking a break, but Kirihara seemed to be at his breaking point. Not only did he look hot and sweaty, but basically sunburned. His hair had also turned white and there was actual steam coming out of his body.

"Damn, I missed what caused him to become the devil." She heard above her.

Niou had placed his hand on her head and used her as support.

"What's happening to him?" she asked.

"He probably just lost to Sanada for the who knows how many times."

"Oh. Is he okay?"

"He'll chill out in a bit. Just don't get near him for now." He told her and walked away.

He was actually going against his advice and went to Kirihara. She decided to look at other people in the courts, since she wasn't too interested in what was happening to the two. Marui and Jackal were talking to each other, and Marui made eye contact with her. He gave a small wave and a wink, which made her blush and look down. She heard him laugh but she didn't want him to see her red face. She sighed, and looked up slowly, only to be hit with a sudden pang on her forehead.

"Megumi!" Niou shouted as she fell to the ground.

' _What the hell just hit my face?'_ she wondered and tried to open her eyes.

Her left side was too painful to bear so she slightly opened her right, and saw a tennis racket in front of her. The surrounding had become ridiculously loud, and she heard a lot of footsteps coming toward her. Before she could get trampled, she tried to at least sit up.

"Hey, don't try to move." She heard Niou say as he lightly gripped her arm.

"Masa." She said as quietly as she could.

"Yeah?" he said almost just as quiet and got closer to her.

"Can you, oh my God am I bleeding?" she asked, since she tasted it in her mouth.

"Yeah. Akaya got out of control and he threw his racket without looking at where he was throwing it." He explained.

"Here's a clean towel to try to stop the bleeding for now." Jackal said.

"Thanks." Niou replied, and she immediately felt the pressure on her head.

"What the hell are you doing!?" she shouted in pain.

"I'm sorry, it's just to stop the bleeding. And guys, it's not stopping." He said as he pulled the towel away.

Since his arm was no longer on her, she used all the strength she had to really sit up.

"Hey, stay laying down." Marui told her, but she refused.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, even though the pain wasn't going away. Niou placed the towel on her again and she winced.

"This looks pretty bad, you need to go to a hospital." Jackal said.

She thoughtlessly pushed Niou away. The pain in her head was something she could no longer feel, and she started shaking her head.

"I am not going to the hospital. That is not happening." She said sternly.

"Megu, come on, your face won't stop bleeding."

"I don't care, I'm fucking fine, don't take me to the hospital." She said again.

She was starting to be able to see, and the team had concerned faces. That was the least of her worries as she started to remember the hospital. She knew that they would keep her for over two weeks, and she would be forced in to unwanted therapy, disgusting high calorie meals, and so many stupid crafts. But that wasn't the worst. She knew none of the doctors would believe a word of what she said about this incident. Even if all she needed was stitches, and even if this was all an accident, based on her history, they would declare this a suicidal attempt.

"Hey, Megumi, I need you to really listen to me-," Niou started.

"No! You don't understand, Masa! The hospital, they-they," Megumi started to hyperventilate.

Memories of the doctors and nurses started to fill her, and also the other mentally ill patients she had met, where some were just unbearable for her. Also the other patients who were there because of physical illnesses, and seeing them die one by one, except for a certain person she suddenly remembered.

"Megumi-chan, don't worry. You'll be okay." Yukimura sat in front of her.

"Megumi-chan, I'm just going to ask you one last time, do you want me to take you to the hospital?"

She stared deep in to his eyes, where everything came back and everything made sense.

' _It's Seiichi. He was sick, and he was supposed to die. We talked. He ate my meals for me sometimes. I snuck in his room when I couldn't sleep. Oh right, we got in so much trouble for that. It's…'_

"Seiichi." She said out loud.

There was absolute silence at this point, and everyone was lost about what was happening between the two.

"N-no, I-I-I can't go to the hospital, you know that. And you're not there anymore, I can't b-be there alone." She managed to say.

"Okay. I won't take you there, but you need this cleaned up okay. I have a friend I can call." He said calmly and stood up.

"I'll be right back." He said to his team.

"What friend do you have that can fix this?" Marui asked.

"Atobe owes me a few favors."

* * *

Megumi lay calmly in this stranger's house, with Niou holding the towel on her head still. He hadn't said anything since she pushed him away. Yukimura was standing by the door, talking to a person she had never met. They seemed to know each other well, as their conversation was going pretty steadily. She winced as she felt a little bit more pressure on her cut.

"Hm? Oh, sorry." He mumbled.

She looked at him and just noticed how sad he actually looked. But what made her feel worse was that he was avoiding looking at her. She knew the way she acted was something he didn't know about her, but he didn't deserve to be yelled at like that.

"Is this the girl?" an older woman came in with a large bag.

"Yeah, what was her name?" the guy asked.

"Megumi." Niou and Yukimura said at the same time.

"Well alright. I'm Doctor Mimura, the family doctor for Atobe-kun here. I wish I could say you can all stay but even a professional needs some space and a decent amount of quiet. Megumi-chan, you can choose one person or no one." She said.

"Masa." She said without hesitation.

She felt the towel move a little, and looked at him. He wasn't smiling or smirking, or even looking angry. His face was absolutely blank.

"Oh, I think it's safe to say that you can remove the towel now." The doctor said.

"Really?" he asked to make sure.

She nodded and he did as he was told. He moved his face closer to see, and it made her embarrassed.

"Okay, you two boys heard her, I'll let you in once were done and she's comfortable." The doctor instructed.

"Are they a couple?" Atobe asked Yukimura.

"Who knows?" He shrugged and walked out the room.

"So, _are_ you two a thing?" the doctor casually asked.

Megumi blushed and didn't answer.

"I wish we were, but I think it'll take time to convince her." Niou chuckled.

"Well, Megumi-chan, if I were to give you any advice, I would say that if you need to be convinced to date someone, they're not right for you." She pursed her lips.

The two laughed and she was growing more comfortable with her.

"So, I'm going to focus on just sewing that up. Have you had stitches before?"

"Uh, yeah, plenty." She said.

"That's not a great thing, but I'm glad you're not as freaked out as many people are. You two can talk to each other if you want, but just be careful as to not move your head too much."

The two were pretty quiet for a couple minutes. What Megumi had just realized is that Niou had taken her hand in his, and she didn't know how long it had been like that. She looked at the pair and felt a deep sense of calm for the first time in that day.

"Hey, Masa." She said, moving her eyes to look at him.

"Hey, Megu." He smiled gently.

"I'm sorry I acted that way earlier." She said, feeling embarrassed over and over again.

"Me too. I didn't know hospitals weren't your…favorite place to be."

"You didn't know. You shouldn't have to be sorry."

"I'm gonna start the needle now." The doctor interrupted.

Megumi took a deep breath while the doctor moved.

"Can I ask about you and Yukimura?" Niou said.

She was uncertain how to answer, since she didn't know how comfortable Yukimura was about this, and she didn't want him to know too much about her already.

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I was just confused at the courts. He seemed to know you really well."

"It's kind of hard to say. Wait, Doctor Mimura, I have to ask, if I say anything regarding my medical history… ouch, I kind of felt that one."

"I know, it's what happens when you make me lose focus." She said in a strictly.

"Sorry," she whispered

"I met him after my first attempt. I was a second year in middle school and he was a third. We were both in the hospital for our own reasons." She started.

"And I honestly don't know how I forgot him. But whenever I was allowed out of my… ward, I guess, we would always talk. I knew that he was waiting for his surgery, and I was being forced through a lot of different kinds of therapy. I was weighted all the time, I had to talk about so much in group that I wasn't comfortable with, and they would have me try different medications. Seiichi, on the other hand, didn't have anyone to talk to. The nurses were nice and had some conversations but they would never answer his question of how his body was doing. He just had a big cloud above him, and he was just waiting for the inevitable storm. We would be each other's escape from everything that was wrong with us."

Niou didn't give vocal responses, but it was very clear he was listening. His grip on her hand tightened and loosened while she was talking.

"Okay, I'm done! Do you want me to call the boys in?" the doctor asked.

"Umm… not just yet." Megumi said.

"Okay. Maybe you don't need to convince her of anything." She winked at Niou before leaving the room.

He slightly rolled his eyes and moved his focus back to Megumi.

"So did you guys date or anything?" he asked.

"Oh that's funny." She quietly laughed.

He went along with it, but still seemed uncomfortable about something.

"I'm sorry if I said too much."

"No, it's not that. I just seriously had no idea you guys knew each other. Does that mean that we might've seen you when we visited him in the hospital?"

"Oh, definitely not. We had different visiting hours and I wasn't exactly allowed to roam around the place."

"That must've sucked. Does the cut still hurt?" he asked, moving his face close.

"A little bit. Oh, right, how did we get here? I feel like I passed out at one point or something." She said.

Niou laughed.

"Not exactly passed out, but you fell asleep. We were all pretty worried, but it was kind of funny. You missed out on a fun helicopter ride."

Megumi looked at him as if he was telling the dumbest joke in the world.

"A helicopter? How the hell was I asleep on a helicopter?" she started to sit up.

"I was practicing my hypnosis." He looked deeply in to her eyes.

She mentally questioned him, looking away and sitting in deep thought. She knew that she was a ridiculously light sleeper, and any sound or movement would wake her up. Niou started laughing.

"I'm kidding, you passed out. Did you actually think losing that much blood from your face was gonna be okay?" he kept laughing.

"Oh, I hate you so much!" she pushed him and laughed along.

"Hey, that's the second time you've pushed me today." He said.

"Hey, this is my house, I'm coming in." a guy boomed and walked in the door.

"Oh, you seem to be doing a lot better." Yukimura said.

"I think you were unconscious when he picked us up, but this is Atobe. He's the tennis captain of Hyotei." He introduced him.

"Yeah, I didn't think you wouldn't know me, but I guess I'll have to forgive you for the fact that you were a victim of Kirihara's outbursts." Atobe rolled his eyes.

' _Wow, stuck up much?'_ she thought.

"Well, thank you for everything. The doctor is really nice." She said to him as nicely as possible.

"Sure. There's a car ready to take you guys wherever you need to go. If you want, the helicopter is available too." He offered.

"I think we'll be okay. Are you able to stand up Megumi-chan?" he asked her.

"Um, yeah, I think so." She said and tried to get to her feet.

Yukimura stood in front of her with his hands out, lending her support.

"Looks like we've switched places from before." He chuckled as she took his hands.

"Oh, right." She said quietly.

She started to remember the times that he would need help standing up, or they would secretly try rehabilitation exercises in his room when no one was around. And, even though she didn't want to, she started to remember the reason why she forgot him.

"Are you okay?" Yukimura asked her.

She nodded quietly, and dropped her hands. Her walking was unsteady, but she didn't care as she walked toward the door, where Niou was waiting.

"You good?" he whispered.

"Just fine." She lied through her teeth, and had Atobe lead them to the car in silence.

* * *

 **I hope you all liked this one~! Let me know what you think please!**


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